Pathfinder Online Layoffs; Ryan Dancey Leaves Company

Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens has announced that Goblinworks has had to lay off nearly the entire staff of Pathfinder Online. "We knew we needed a certain amount of money to finish to build the game, and we came really damn close, but we just couldn’t find the last bit of funding that we needed. […] Last Friday, we had to lay off most of the staff. […] I couldn’t pay them anymore. We gave them lots of warning, so they all knew this was coming." Not only that, apparently Ryan Dancey left the company two weeks ago! That leaves three employees (who are continuing work on the game), who are being moved to the Paizo offices; the Goblinworks offices are being closed. The company is seeking $1-$2 million from other investors to finish the game.

Pathfinder Online was being produced by Goblinworks, a new company spearheaded by Ryan Dancey and Lisa Stevens, amongst others. It has had two successful Kickstarters already - one for a million dollars, and the other for a $300K technology demo.

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Here's the full announcement from Lisa Stevens:

To the Pathfinder Online Community

From the beginning of the three year journey to create Pathfinder Online, the one constant has been the support of our community and for this I thank you. We have had ups and downs including heated debates on design, implementation and overall gameplay. We have literally battled together (or against each other) and I know you enjoy playing the game as much as I do. I also know that the community comes together during tough times, and it is probably no surprise that we are currently in a tough spot right now. There are a number of things that have occurred in the past two weeks that you need to be brought up to date on.

As we have been on this journey to create Pathfinder Online with you for over three years now, we have striven to be as transparent as possible with you. We just shared the following message with the community during our weekly Keepside Chat. In full transparency, here is a quick run down of the state of our game:

EE10.2 is on ZOG for final testing and should roll out to live on Thursday or Friday morning.

EE11 is targeted for the end of September

Ryan Dancey has had to resign from the company for personal reasons (Lisa Stevens will be acting CEO)

Finances are tight at Goblinworks, which has resulted in the layoff of the majority of Goblinworks staff

CTO Mark Kalmes, Art Director Mike Hines, and Designer Bob Settles continue to push the game forward (your monthly subscriptions are what keep these three employed and the server up)

Goblinworks is in talks with multiple game publishers to take the game on and bring it to Open Enrollment

I know that is a lot to take in, so I will share what details we can below:

Game status (EE10.2 and EE11)

We are in final testing before pushing EE10.2 to the live server with its fully revamped and improved new player experience, buy orders for the auction house as well as auction sales histories, settlement chat, and the new crystal ogres monthly event, as well as turning the previous event (The Wrath of Nhur Athemon and its Shadow counterpart) into an ongoing escalation, and making a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. The team has been working hard on this and on EE11 for most of July and August. EE11 is done in design, almost entirely done in art, and just needs a bit more programming to get it to the point where we can test. It will take settlement activities to the next level by allowing you to customize and build your settlements the way you want to. Building a settlement will be a large group task, with lots of raw materials to gather and refine before buildings can be erected. We will also have the dark elves monthly event ready, providing more PVE content for those who are focused on that aspect of the game. The core team has the goal of shipping EE11 by the end of September, and we'll keep you updated on our progress.

Ryan Dancey

Ryan Dancey needed to resign from the company for personal reasons. We were very sad that he needed to leave us, but supported his decision because it is in the best interests of Ryan’s life outside Goblinworks. In Ryan’s absence, the board of directors has appointed me Acting CEO.

Finances

We have always known that we would need a certain amount of money to make Pathfinder Online a reality. Some delays in getting the game to market coupled with some anticipated funding falling through have left us about 75% short of the money we need to finish the game and bring it to Open Enrollment. We knew that we could cut our burn rate (the rate at which expenses burn your cash reserves) by having folks participate in Early Enrollment and that was always the plan, though we never thought that the Early Enrollment subscribers could carry the company to Open Enrollment. We knew we needed that full investment amount to do that. We had numerous times this year where the full funding was dangling in front of us only to be snatched away at the last moment. Very frustrating, but we moved forward and kept looking for somebody to come through with the money we needed to see the game through.

Due to the commitment that you have made to the game, your current subscriptions are able to keep the core team employed and the servers live. We will continue to move the game forward with that team and keep the servers live as long as the continued financial support from the community is there. But that means we need you, the Pathfinder Online Community, to continue to support us with your monthly subscription fees. They are very literally what is keeping the servers paid for, and keeping our core team employed, working on EE11, and talking with various potential partners about purchasing the game so they can finish it. If you wish to see the game through to its finish, we need you to support it financially for the next few months, and if you know people that want to support it, encourage them to subscribe now. (During this period, we will offer only month-to-month subscriptions.)

On August 28, we had to lay off the majority of the Goblinworks staff. Continuing to push the game forward are CTO Mark Kalmes, Art Director Mike Hines, and Designer Bob Settles. We have been keeping the staff abreast of our efforts to find funding for Pathfinder Online and that we would likely have to lay them off on the 28th. We felt it was super important to give our employees warning so they could plan their lives accordingly. Their efforts to line up new jobs led to some of the rumors about layoffs. So why didn’t we announce this earlier? Because there was and still remains a chance for Pathfinder Online to get its funding and continue forward, so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that we would have to lay the staff off until Friday, the 28th.

Future

For the past few weeks, we have been shopping Pathfinder Online to a number of other game publishers, looking for a good fit to take the game on and fund it over the finish line. There have been quite a few companies coming out of the woodwork to discuss this with us and we are in ongoing talks with a number of them about the possibilities. More companies enter the fray every day. These kinds of things take some time, though we are motivated to see them through as quickly as we can. At any moment, one of these publishers could agree to buy the game and we could quickly ramp up to full tilt again. Due to confidentiality, we can’t provide information on these negotiations. Rest assured that you will be the first people we tell when there is news we can share.

This isn’t a super rosy picture, but we aren’t dead yet! The Goblinworks team and the Pathfinder Online community have been underdogs for pretty much the entire project’s history. But we have persevered and survived. Sometimes it is darkest right before the dawn. When I was at White Wolf, we were close to having our electricity and phones shut off in the month before Vampire: The Masquerade released and became a huge hit. At Wizards of the Coast, we had to lay off the entire staff for 9 months before Magic: The Gathering launched and became one of the most successful games in history. You have my word that I will work relentlessly to find the right partner to take Pathfinder Online through to the finish line. The team has brought the ball down the field to the red zone, and now we just need somebody to punch it over the goal line.

I will be hosting another Keepside Chat on Wednesday, September 8th at its normal time of 5pm PST. You can join the chat live by going to:

Golarion.mumble.com

Port 3093

The ability for us to make Pathfinder Online has always been entirely dependent upon you, the Pathfinder Online Community and the support you have given us. I would like to thank the Pathfinder Online community for your fierce dedication, support, feedback, and drive to see this game made well. The only reason to make Pathfinder Online is you, our customer. I hope you will stay with us over the next few months as we search for that proper partner to finish the game. It is your support, literally, that will allow this to happen. Without you, there is no Pathfinder Online.

You have my eternal gratitude,

Lisa Stevens
Acting CEO
Goblinworks Inc.





Original post:

Goblinworks has laid off all but three of the Pathfinder Online staff.

 

[Starfox]

I have not joined a kickstarter to date. I prefer to see the end product, versus a purchase based on faith.

The result of this choice is, of course, a lower chance to see the project become reality. But only marginally so for you as an individual. It seems enough people don't share this view for Kickstarter to be a success.

 

[Gundark]

What this boils down to is the power of branding. While Paizo and Pathfinder are household names in the rpg world, they are relatively unknowns in the gaming world as a whole. I imagine that most investors might have been like "Path-who?", thus people who were uncertain of the project. If Pathfinder had some "oomph" behind it then it would have been easier to secure investors IMO

 

[Minicol]

I have backed a great many Kickstarters, including this one, and my loss rate is about 10%. I did not really want to back this one, but the goodies made it irresistible, plus it was kind of a thank you for the Paizo team.

 

[Starfox]

What this boils down to is the power of branding. While Paizo and Pathfinder are household names in the rpg world, they are relatively unknowns in the gaming world as a whole. I imagine that most investors might have been like "Path-who?", thus people who were uncertain of the project. If Pathfinder had some "oomph" behind it then it would have been easier to secure investors IMO

Dungeons and Dragons probably has more "omph" outside the actual RPG community than Pathfinder.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Dungeons and Dragons probably has more "omph" outside the actual RPG community than Pathfinder.

That's what WotC and Hasbro are gambling on with their primary focus on D&D shifting to use of the IP outside of tabletop rpgs. I'm doubtful that they will find a lot of success with it, but only time will tell.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

But here's the real kicker: regardless of how many Kickstarter software projects fail, nearly 100% would not have existed if it weren't for the patronage model Kickstarter offers. By backing, I am helping to bring something into being that otherwise might not have existed. It's pretty cool to have someone pitch something that could exist, and then realize you can cause it to come into being.

My focus is on getting a final, delivered project that is everything that it promised to be. I'm not really that interested in the feeling that I helped it come about. When it comes to software projects, my experience over the years has been very disappointing. In addition to the high failure rate, I hate to see things that get funded and then under-delivered, like Realm Works, which still doesn't live up to the hype. If software is funded and successfully produced, I just buy it after it goes on sale to the general public. Generally the extra backer rewards for those things don't mean much to me.

I am far more likely to fund a tabletop rpg project that produces a final print product. Sometimes the print versions never go on sale to the general public, and since I don't like pdf-only copies, I have to go to Kickstarter to get the weird, inventive, unusual games I like. I have been burned enough there, though, to be a lot more careful about what I back.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

My general feel is that anything that uses a license is likely to be less good than it would have been without that license.

That has been my experience, too. There are numerous exceptions, but it's true more often than not.

 

[Dannager]

My focus is on getting a final, delivered project that is everything that it promised to be.

You're talking about software. It is practically a miracle to receive a shipped software product that is "everything that it promised to be." It doesn't matter whether you're talking about a project on Kickstarter, a game from EA, or a new iOS app from Apple. You are, perhaps, more likely to get "everything that it promised to be" out of a large company with an established history of shipped products, but not much more likely, since we're already talking about the software equivalent of a unicorn.

If your expectation, for any software product, is "everything it is promised to be," then your expectations are decidedly unrealistic and probably need to be reevaluated.

You might also consider why meeting expectations is important to you. Do you judge a product on how well it matches its ad copy? Or do you judge it on how much you enjoy the finished product? (Or, perhaps, is your enjoyment of the finished product dependent on how well it matches its ad copy?)

I'm not really that interested in the feeling that I helped it come about.

It isn't about the "feeling" of satisfaction. It's about knowing that you have the power to increase the likelihood of something existing, and then actually *doing it*. It's not some warm fuzzy that makes people chip in (though I'm sure some people enjoy that). It's about playing a tangible role in steering the direction of the industry, even if that role is a small one, and (usually) getting an enjoyable product out of it, to boot.

When it comes to software projects, my experience over the years has been very disappointing.

Then you would be absolutely *shattered* by the number of software projects that are started, developed for months or years, and then canceled before the public even hears about them.

There is a (sadly) widespread mythology in the gaming community that properly-funded Kickstarter software projects are significantly more likely to fail than software projects outside of Kickstarter. That isn't the case, in my experience. The real difference is that you can see a failed Kickstarter software project.

 

[Gundark]

Dungeons and Dragons probably has more "omph" outside the actual RPG community than Pathfinder.

"Omph" of course meaning degree of brand recognition

 

[pickin_grinnin]

You're talking about software. It is practically a miracle to receive a shipped software product that is "everything that it promised to be."

I have been buying (and programming) software since the days of the Apple II. I'm quit familiar with the problems associated with development and delivery on promises. When you buy software after it has been created, distributed, and reviewed by others, though, you're at much less of a disadvantage than buying something that hasn't been fully developed yet.

It isn't about the "feeling" of satisfaction. It's about knowing that you have the power to increase the likelihood of something existing, and then actually *doing it*. It's not some warm fuzzy that makes people chip in (though I'm sure some people enjoy that). It's about playing a tangible role in steering the direction of the industry, even if that role is a small one, and (usually) getting an enjoyable product out of it, to boot.

That just doesn't have any value for me. As a programmer, my contribution to the software industry is much more direct.

Then you would be absolutely *shattered* by the number of software projects that are started, developed for months or years, and then canceled before the public even hears about them.

No, I'm probably a lot more familiar with that than most people here. I have worked as a programmer for about 30 years, both full-time and part-time. During the times when my day jobs were in other industries (anthropologist and librarian), I was an independent contractor. I have worked on everything from games to huge corporate websites, including being one of the developers of a gaming section of the Cartoon Network website at one point.

I am absolutely, painfully aware of the realities of programming projects, failure rates, what can be realistically done with particular levels of funding, etc. That's why I don't fund software projects. The risk of losing my money - or getting a substandard product that I don't like - are very high. I want a good return on my money, because every dollar I spend on a bad project is money I could have spent at the local used bookstore.

There is a (sadly) widespread mythology in the gaming community that properly-funded Kickstarter software projects are significantly more likely to fail than software projects outside of Kickstarter.

Commercial software projects fail all the time, in one way or another. It's more the rule than the exception. That has nothing to do with it. There is a big difference between being able to read reviews of a completed software package (game or otherwise) and gambling on a software product that hasn't even been developed yet. A BIG difference.