Anomalies at Companies House

Tim Rance has certainly stayed out of the limelight. And before we get too carried away (myself included) there are, of course, dozens of reasons why a person might leave their role at a company, and plenty of perfectly reasonable explanations for why they may not want attention drawn to it.

Here's a rare interview with Tim Rance about Godus:
venturebeat.com/2014/10/25/how-godus-developer-22cans-has-found-freedom-and-managed-the-headaches-of-early-access/

It's interesting to see his take on the reasons why 22Cans was set up and what they were hoping to achieve with Godus, if only because we're so used to hearing PM vapidly blather on about it. The author describes Tim has having a "nuanced" view on Early Access, but he seems to feel that Godus has been a great success and he's proud of what they've achieved. It's worth noting that this article was written in October 2014 - long after it became clear to the community that PC-Godus has been a misleading train wreck.

Now in fact that WOULD be big news, since he's the Finance Guy. Where did you hear that? Or secret sources...? Once again, checking the 22Cans staff page shows that Peter Murphy has been removed. There is now nobody listed here whose job description even comes close to finance, so who on earth is looking after the books?

We currently have 22 people listed on the staff page. I realise the whole "22Cans" thing was initially about 22 people but I could've sworn there used to be loads more than that.

So if Jack, Peter and Tim were the main three people supposedly responsible for reigning in PM's stupid ideas and complete ignorance of how to do business, what could this mean for the future of the studio?

The little bird needs to be circling overhead chirping ABANDON SHIP.

Um....good question. I don't know why Peter Murphy left, but the general situation at 22cans doesn't look good.

From chatting around with some mates about the situation, I have a feeling that somehow a gambit didn't quite work out - a token development team and show of effort to keep up appearances while company focus is shifted to make a new title as quick as possible.

It looked like they hopped to a new game to get picked up by a publisher, likely DeNA...I have a feeling that might have fallen through or they didn't get as much as they had previously banked upon.

Conjecture, mind you, but from my own experiences* this would seem to have been the usual MO, as seen currently with the likes of Chucklefish (who are looking to run from Shelfbound to Wayward Tide, after having taken all of the money and delivered on only a fraction of the promises...all while setting up their indie publishing house on their backers and Early Access customers' millions put forth for Vapourbound's development; their problem is too much money, not enough experience.)

When companies were more "faceless" and didn't interact with the public as much, nor offered "transparent development" or a near facade of such, they were able to discreetly do this kind of thing.

I've picked up enough about business to know that there are three kinds of people your company needs to keep happy as much as possible, and as honestly as possible: your investors/backers, your employees and your customers. The first is your personal job (investors/backers can usually find a replacement for you), the second is your workforce (good luck finding a replacement for the person you just made irate, along with quite a number of their fellows in the same industry...), and the third is the entire point of your business existing.

Having your employees shoulder two narratives is just asking them to eventually break down from stress between the two. That would be placing upon them undue stress which could possibly material for compensation of employer abuse. There is a difference between an internal policy that isn't revealed to the public and a completely different story arc.

In this case, it has become a decision between seeking money in the most effortless route possible, or to deliver a wonderful experience to people. I think the main reason why people seem angry at PM so much is because we HAVE seen better from him that this is such a shame.



For a while it looked hopeful, if only 22cans knew where to put them. As it is, Godus now languishes in comparative dev hell because the developers it has on it now aren't really able...maybe not allowed?..to do more than just "combat in the combat sprint". That's nice...which means anything outside of combat is pretty much still the whole "Fabs' seekrit project!" and for anyone to offer a shot in the dark about any good design to offer to the game, as combat and multiplayer will be the focus of the tiny (FOUR as of May 5) development team, is obviously nil.  

22cans can only do combat and some colour changes...what input, really?

Ah well, I should have started archiving that page in a more visual-friendly manner, since without saved graphics you have to count the entries in the source.

Remember this version some of the press chewed on a bit? web.archive.org/web/20140205060600/http://www.22cans.com/about-us

* - My wanderlust extended towards software development along with travels across the globe in a few capacities, and so I have a few perspectives from other forms of video game software development - such as freeware MUD development where your work and your presentation of product were everything that mattered. The point with that wasn't to make money, but to bring a community of like people together to make your kingdoms come alive. Being a developer in such a capacity offers a neat form of a 'god game' in itself. I also have personal experiences with the likes of Electronic Arts from long ago, so I can also possibly make an insanity plea in some regions upon that alone.

The people who are still there might simply not have any other or better options at the moment.