Yogventures replacement TUG delayed due to layoffs
"Sadly, we need to cut off a few limbs."
The developer of TUG, the open world sandbox game given to backers of the failed Kickstarter Yogventures, has suffered a significant round of layoffs.
Half of Nerd Kingdom's 25-person team have been let go after a major investment fell through.
Exactly how long TUG will now take to finish is unknown, but backers were told that it was no longer possible for the remaining developers to meet their planned January date for goals detailed in the project's original Kickstarter campaign.
In a post on TUG's Kickstarter blog, Nerd Kingdom explained that it declined an investment which would have kept the team at full capacity, but at the price of handing over ownership of the project.
"The deal that would have gone through would have lost us all control and ownership and we are not huge fans of being owned by investors like this," Nerd Kingdom founder Peter Salinas wrote. "Sadly, we need to cut off a few limbs to be able to ensure this does not happen."
Salinas also personally apologised for not having dealt with the project's financial situation sooner.
"We will be a few months late on delivering all our promises by January, as we stated we would with the Kickstarter goals," he continued. "I apologise for that on behalf of the team and I am holding myself accountable for NOT having done more diligence on our financial partners to know this was coming."
TUG hit the headlines earlier this year when keys for the game were given to all backers of failed Kickstarter project Yogventures. Despite being backed by successful YouTube channel Yogscast and raising $567,000 in Kickstarter funds, Yogventures' development ended in failure after more than two years. Its developer, Winterkewl Games, has since shut down.
But Nerd Kingdom has reassured TUG fans that its own news didn't mean it would share the same fate.
"This is not us going down," Salinas concluded. "Quite the opposite. Its us making the sacrifice needed, now, so that we DON'T go the path of other Kickstarters before us. We are doing what it takes to press on, self sustain and do what we have been telling you all since we first started on this together, well over a year ago. This is what we have to do in order to stay independent and free to do what we want to do.
