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Either you or RUclips are deleting comments here and it's very suspicious. I think its because they're mentioning UB. They're not even swearing. I swore and my comment is currently fine but theirs just stating the facts are all gone!
This game taught young me to not get swept up in early access hype, the worst part is I don't even know how to access my account so I had to torrent the finished game anyway
Lol, same. I learned a year too late you were supposed to grab a Steam key from the page on his website with your original login, except his website had been down for months at that point. Ended up getting the game "somewhere else", played it for 30 minutes, and never again afterwards lol
@@miser2570 Yep, I had to do this, and got my steam key within like 48 hours of sending the email. Haven't played the game since, but was at least happy I had my key, considering I paid for the game.
Im not here to fan or douse the flames, but i remember the first server test I did for a MMO game i was trying to make years ago had a super high traffic spike during the first couple playtests & I blamed the players for DDOSing me. Turned out, I just had shitty code that was pinging the server once per frame on many clients 😂😂😂
Yeah, don't feel too bad. That is something that QA team would have figured out prior to an alpha release. But with an indie dev, those are hard to come by.
What’s sad is that the Alpha version was technically better and felt more feature complete than the “release” version, since so much the game was changed or gutted in the “release”.
Honestly, his biggest mistake was taking money from people early. Disappear for years... completely change the game... whatever... as long as people haven't entrusted you with their hard earned money. I do feel for the guy, but he handled it all really badly.
Nah, i disagree a bit. money for a small dev is important to continue developing. bills need to be paid. but going years without updates, even to dissuade "maybe hes dead" rumors. that's not okay.
@@unrighteous8745 Putting money towards a alpha/beta/indie dev is an investment. And letting the people supporting you know that you are still actively working on it is how you keep the trust that they will get the product. Updates about possible new features allows the community to give feedback before a ton of time is wasted. communication is the most important thing. You're right that the dev owes people. they owe a response.
I suffer from frequent anxiety, so I _want_ to give the guy sympathy... But I can't because of his lying. Especially to people who _paid him money._ Having an anxiety attack as a nearly-solo indie dev and just wanting / needing to hide under a rock for a while to recuperate is understandable. But he should've been honest about it and explained he was going to be a digital hermit that only makes update posts every X months (and then stick to the schedule). By lying about the DDoS attack, I now have to wonder if he's lying about the anxiety as well. His whole character becomes suspect. Accepting money means increased responsibility.
The vast majority of people that I know that claim to have anxiety typically do so when they ate trying to rationalize poor behavior. Next time any of you are drawn to use your anxiety as an excuse to behave poorly, remember, you are just like this developer.
I find it incredibly ironic how in his pursuit for "perfection" and what not he ended up ruining what made the game good to begin with, and since ko one could play the bloody thing, no one could stop him while there was still time
Oof. Heap big sad. Corporation being corporation. I bet you are using a device made with 3rd world slave labor to post your emotionally manipulative comment.
The fans say that is his thing, that is what he does. Yeah great, but when you work on a game and you disappear for a long time, years, without any form of communication, people gonna get pissed and assume you ran off with the money.
@@Ditchhead Exactly, or at least appoint/hire community managers who can deal with the public for him while he focuses on just making the game. Heck I'm pretty sure plenty of fans would run his Discord. Twitter, etc. for free. He can just tell them what is coming up and they can post it for him, respond to messages, etc.
Absolutely, but back then as a 14 years without any money, i used to play Cube World cracked version, glad to say that i didn't balought it in 2013. After i saw the new version in 2020 and those many negative comments, i bought it. And it's still a great game meanwhile, it has the same atmosphere with more unique game mechanism. I have 50hours in it, sadly the game still has many bugs and insane CPU usage... Maybe i look around in modpacks.
External deadlines can push you to ensure you get things done on time but they can also force you to release a project you know isn't ready and needs more time in the oven. But then on the other end you have this. There's just no perfect method, really.
Having a deadline of "Out by Christmas" will ruin the product, every time! Having a deadline like "Update of any sort each season" will push productivity. There is a difference between "guys in a shed" and "mega corp making shareholders happy".
@@MazeFrame Not all mega corps are bad. Nintendo's 1st party games, whatever you think of them, have never been rushed and are overall excellently polished. A few titles have too little content for the price in some fans eyes, but the content that IS there is enjoyable for those who like the genre. I'd also like to point you to Peter Molyneux as an indie creator who had very little influence from publishers but still was "that guy who overpromised to the media and then the programmers had to scramble to include those features." It doesn't matter if it's a megacorp or an indie studio, it matters whose at the helm.
This dude needs therapy; and I don't mean that in a malicious way. He genuinely needs to work on his massive anxiety issues with a professional. He seems like a well-meaning guy who went hard freeze and then flight when faced with thousands of virtual eyes on him. As long as he continues that vicious cycle, he's never going to make the game either he or the players truly want.
Wollay belongs working for a game design company not an indie since his talent is exceptional but his people management skills are beyond pathetic so if he can just become part of a team away from that then his work could honestly be impressive when he’s not the one at the helm
It's been said before but is worth repeating: People like this guy and Phil Fish could do amazing work if only they trusted other people to help them. I do realise it's tied up with mental health problems (believe me, I know that intimately) but honestly that's more an indictment of attitudes toward mental health in general. I'm not downplaying the damage done to the mentality of fans over this, I just hope that future developers learn lessons from this and understand that seeking help is not being weak or losing control of a project.
TL;DR mental illness isn't a "trust issue" I'm an indie gamedev and no one will help me. It isn't a matter of trust. I'm married with 3 kids and have been unable to get work for 2 years. I've applied for hundreds of jobs both inside and outside my industry (I'm a software developer). I've been asking for help, tried social media, even made a Discord server. I first heard about the Cubeworld fiasco a few years ago and have specifically tried to avoid the kinds of mistakes described. But i have no hype, no fan community, no volunteers, and no money. But sure, call it a "trust" issue. I have a therapist and medication but those are the only things the state & fed will provide. My SBA loan applications were denied (i have no cash flow bc the game isn't done, obvs), I'm facing foreclosure on my home bc I've been out of work for 2 years. People like to give "advice" away but unless you're a gamedev yourself you don't understand the actual problems. And if you try to open up about your problems (eg. like I'm doing here) then randos will "investigate" you, call you a liar, dox you, and produce video "analysis," "exposure," "takedown," or "post-mortem" and profit from your situation. But sure, it's a "trust" issue. Like having your personal problems exploited on social media (for those sweet, sweet HelloFresh dollars) isn't the kind of thing that would give you trust issues in the first place?
I find it wild that he's rebuilding the game in UE5. Switching engines for a longstanding project either means nothing was done in a decade or the scope has gotten soo out of control that they feel the need to regain previous players with some new bells and whistles.
It's baffling to me, if Wollay just updated the damn game and removed the region lock for items many reviews would turn positive. The game was almost fine, he just did the most brain-dead thing possible without informing any of the fanbase.
Sounds to me like he couldn't handle all the quirks he was dealing with in the current/previous engine. At that point, that's a matter of understanding the limits of the engine you're working with. 100% his fault for not pulling through with the current engine instead of trying to remake the game in a different one.
This is probably due to his perfectionism and a good example of how it's one of the worst traits you can have as an artist. Without an objective measurement of what "perfect" even is, the only thing it results in is a chase after an ever-changing ideal.
I remember getting into this game super early and playing the Alpha in 2013. I was dealing with a lot, studying to get into Uni as a game dev, working nights in a fridge to support my mum with rent and bills who had cancer and couldn't work. In August she sadly passed away, as my last living family member I obviously fell off this games radar as I swiftly had to grieve, go to University and deal with it all, sadly unhealthy and rebuild my life. But because of that it holds an odd memory of remembrance in my mind for the few months I did play it. I was disconnected from all this hate the developer was getting though, I might not be able to fully sympathise and understand how he felt but i do feel for them. The hunt for the next Minecraft was pretty insatiable for some.
Okay, look, I really wanna feel bad for this guy, as a person who has anxiety so bad I literally get disability checks for it. But sometimes, you really gotta look in the mirror and ask yourself 'Can I do this?'. You gotta be humble and recognize when you can't handle shit, ESPECIALLY when you're taking peoples money. Would I cry, run and hide and leave the internet for months with no updates at the slightest issue? Quite possibly. But I wouldn't keep the game going like this in the first place. If I made a little indie game that blew up into a smash hit with fans circling me like vultures, I'd say 'Fuck this, sorry guys, I can't handle it.'. Of course that's hard to do, I spent most of my teen years struggling with that, but again, you're taking peoples money, at SOME point you gotta face the music and realize you can't handle this.
I watched another video sometime ago analyzing the so-called "DDoS attack", and that it doesn't seem like the case. I don't remember how it was exactly explained but it had something to do with how capped Wollay's network was set up, that couldn't meet such high demand. And that misconception caused him confusion.
@@Knae Yep, Wicked Wiz has covered it twice now.... he just did an updated video on CubeWorld after playing the latest version of it on stream, and he definitely covered the whole DDoS question.
The beginning of your video really speaks to me in a different way. I bought a production line for a hydraulic breather (an air filter), and thought I could make some money on the side. It was cheap (scrap price) for everything. ....well a few months later, I have government contractors wanting this product, and I'm currently working on becoming ISO certified. It's a much bigger deal than I could have ever anticipated.
I bought the original alpha, I bought the first steam release. And I'm not going to buy the next one unless Wollay has proven he can handle himself. Dude loses his marbles at the slightest issue and just runs away.
The first time is undertandable the second time is an issue the third is just poor emotional inteligence. No offense but if he wants anxiety at check he should start taking madication and theraphy
fwiw he had openly tried to court his fanbase from Minecraft after the controversy that was the Combat Update. It wasn't a leap of logic to conclude his "DDoS attack" was just people genuinely trying to register for the game.
There is a game called Veloren, very much inspired by CubeWorld, in fact an attempt to implement and improve the original concept of the game. It is completely free and open source, written on a custom game engine in Rust programming language. The game is still in development, but there is already a public version with working multiplayer. Although I have certain complaints about the developers themselves, in general I think that CubeWorld fans should know about such a successor to the original idea. Upd: typos
I don't believe he will do it any different. Seems like he constantly repeats the disappearing act and seems to be highly sensitive. He needs to hire proper people to runt he business for him while he focuses solely on the development part. That they are deleting negative comments is a massive red flag and if he got scared cause of DDOS attacks, he will be even more scared for player backlash who have not forgotten Cubeworld. I still can't believe he went zero contact on us all who supported him early back then, just to then release a different game that was inferior to the Alpha. He promised a big patch just went he disappeared. His fanboys defend him till no end, but he has a lot proof if he wishes to get any money from me ever again. He better make Omega a free update or a free version for those who bought Cubeworld, as a backer I deserve the game that was promised would be weird if he now makes that game and then tell us backers we need to pay for it again.
But did it flop? The guy created a game with his wife and probably made millions. I’m sure even bigger Indy studios with a dozen employees would want that type of exposure and sales.
Regarding the DDOS attack The college I went to releases results for end of semester exams for all students at the same time. Every year there was a DDOS attack on the results portal, until IT's suggestion of staggering the release of them by school and year was taking up. Suddenly there wasn't a DDOS attacks anymore.
Callum, I know sometimes RUclipsrs need to take sponsors, however there are a few sponsors I've recently decided to immediately stop viewing videos on in hopes that it will show that I don't support the sponsors. Hello fresh is one of them (better help is another). Good luck! I hope your future videos won't have sponsorships from companies that do bad things.
Interesting, played it originally when the alpha came out. There was basically no content in the game, but kept me entertained for a few hours. Didn't think much of it after that. Had no idea development dragged on so long
@@Ookamisieshin A lot less. Original alpha actually had a fair amount of content. But a big chunk of it was pretty rare to come in contact with. The progression was very lacking though.
The fact that wollay started posting again and people are still hyped for this game is a lesson that some people are just beyond saving and will get themselves scammed.
I do hope the best for Wolly and feel bad what has happened. I was deeply involved in the Cube World community for a long time before the release. People in the community slowly reached out to Wollay for years via emails. Sharing their experience with the game and hoping to give him the motivations to continue. He would share his experience during this time and people were able to get him to come out. I'll just say, there is a side of this story that isn't public. But it felt like years of community effort to help build up his confidence that the world didn't hate him, and bring him out of his shell. Then he got hit with such hard backlash because the game was subpar. I really do wish he would hire a community manager or someone to help him with business. And part of everything that's happened is on him for not doing this. Making a bad a game is one thing, the community putting so much hope and faith on a two person team is another. There's honestly so much here that's simply out of perspective. I'm glad he hasn't given up completely. I don't buy the whole greedy story. He didn't sell his games for years while he worked on it because he didn't believe he could finish the game everyone wanted. It's easy to hate on Wollay, but it's important to remember you're dealing with a person on the otherside of the screen.
12:25 "we got ddosed as soon as we opened the store" Bro, you can't be serious you mistook everybody super excited to play and buy your game as a DDOS attack? Are you serious? You had a gold mine and you threw it away? You wanted to be a game developer. You had it right there and you threw it away
I remember seeing this game come to steam and I rolled my eyes. Was genuinely surprised the game even still existed. I bought into the early alpha when I was about 13 and it was probably the first game I ever felt truly scammed by.
@@jacend9793 well development is still ongoing. They did say that any devlogs or development updates would lessen. But any informative update and state of the game remain absent for over a year, yes, hence the question.
This is a prime example of ¨how about releasing your game AFTER it's finished and play tested.¨ A lot less hassle I'd imagine. Quit jumping the gun and learn to love patience. 😀
the changes made to the "release version" are the strangest part of this story to me. Dude made a relatively good game and took a dump on it for what would appear to be no reason?
I mean, the pattern of Wollay's previous behavior makes it easy to predict what will happen once CW Omega releases. He will get backlash and then vanish again silently crying about him being the victim
Years ago (We are talking 8 plus or something) I watched one of my favorite youtuber duos cover this game. They were having a blast, because this was back when cube world was still being worked on. We are talking the about the very start of the game's development here. I thought about getting the game, but then I forgot about it after a while. Now I'm glad that happened. Means I never spent any money on the game.
4:00 with regards to this DDOS "attack", it wasn't a very proven "attack" as it was merely speculated to be one. Considering how the "attacks" only happened during the night(or mostly), another explanation could be that his store couldn't handle the overwhelming amount of costumers who'd start trying to buy the game from Europe, as Europeans are time wise about 4-8 hours ahead. (Note, this is addressed later in the video, somewhat)
His incompetence is staggering, honestly. He should have just sold the game long ago or something. If you can't handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.
I really sympathize with Wollay. As an aspiring indie game dev with social anxiety and a preference for seclusion and complete creative control, I could see myself falling into the same traps of my own making. Having to choose between the stress of handling everything on my own so that I wouldn't have to deal with the stress of assembling and working with a team, or trying to put aside my anxiety and introversion long enough to get some help would genuinely be a very difficult decision for me. We are so often our own worst enemy. Wollay's story has been a cautionary tale to me that I think about often. I hope he can learn from his mistakes too. I genuinely feel for the guy and I'd like to see him succeed.
Ok the following is not backed up by any evidence, please have this in mind: I saw another youtuber who suggested that there were no real DDOS attack but there were just so many people that wanted to access the shop that it looked like one, but actually was just so high demand. EDIT: AH you adrress that too.
I felt bad for Wallay up to the point when you mentioned that he was possibly lying about being attacked. He may have been scared about the amount of traffic he was getting, but lying. Then using that lie to deflect criticism.
I think we all have "spaceships" in our project boxes and folders: Stuff that floats around and takes up space. There is a reason I personally NEVER publish anything beyond silly memes: What if someones wants to give me money for it? I know damn well I would not have the strength to say no to money! And with money, suddenly there is expectations. One guy in a shed can only get so much done. I find people exhausting so I would do like Wolley and just... drop the PR. Concerning the DDoS attack story: Sidney Decker may want to have a word with the author(s) of that theory. Because in hindsight, with no stress, with more information available and knowing the outcome, it is obvious what went wrong.
A lot shows that he may have been a good programmer, but lacked skills in every other area of being a developer. Time management, setting and keeping milestones, feature design are as important to a developer as programming itself. The best code doesn't matter if you can't deliver what was promised in time. The whole "several reworks from scratch" already were a big red flag. I would only completely refactor a feature from scratch if absolutely necessary. Everything else is mostly not worth the time. Refactor it multiple times from scratch? Not in my life. Clearly he started programming before actually knowing what he wanted to create and spent way too little time in the design phase of the feature.
Ooh boi, I was there during the Beta debacle. It was very stressful, I remember it felt like an actual war was going on. The very highhorse defenders attacking anything resembling criticism, with venomous comments on all sides. But there was still a solid core of genuine people who wanted to make the release good and desperately kept trying to suggest changes, or even just delay the release because EVERYONE knew it would be a disaster if it released in that state. Then we just had the war feeling like trying to speak through a glass door with muffled answers, and at the end, radio silence, it released, it crashed and burned. Way too much good will was burnt on wanting Wollay to have a success. No more, I can't defend or even care about anything related to Cubeworld. It's too depressing, and regardless of if he's actually a master connist or as he claims to be, I don't want anything from him anymore.
Hype isn't a measure of how excited people are for a game...its a measure of how over speculated it is, people start making unrealistic requests, blowing small things out of proportion, making assumptions based on popular opinion and not fact... all it causes are unnecessary problems.
the worst thing is that this video should be irrelevant by now, but it isn't. cube world is for long now one of those games that, if you get reminded of it, you think to your self 'oh right, i frogot...that was a thing.' as most people already moved on. but wollay manages to keep this whole thing relevant, to refresh peoples anger again and again by promising things, vanishing, repeat. if anything at all this video should be a look back at the scam that cube world was. just that this wouldn't be true, as with how things are going...the scam is still going on. honestly i don't get it. everyone would be better off if cube world was 'dead'. wollay wouldn't have to deal with people that are pissed and the people would get closure. if you can't even take the slightest criticism then just take the chance to get off the radar and don't start posting again as soon as you managed to get off...
I hope Cube World Omega is the game that we've been waiting for since 2013 but as someone who has bought the Alpha, I'm just going to write off the money I spent and not hold my breath for it.
The lying about ddossing when it was just RUclipsrs playing the game, showing people how to buy it, and boom"im being attacked!!!!!" No you were getting so many fans and everyone loved it!
Can you do a postmortem video on nightmare world development or did I miss the video. Glad you didn’t take any money for it but was odd it just fell off and I can’t find that it was officially abandoned
its not abandoned haha, i had a long discussion in the NMW discord regarding this, i know not everyone is in there or saw it, but thats the best place as it wasnt just a post or picture
@CallumUpton any chance you'll do another followup on DW? They recently did a big release I wanted to hate on but in it they not only seem to have made huge progress but they also decided to go f2p and refund any buyers who feel they wouldn't have paid if the game was always f2p. It actually seemed like a pretty impressive move but I haven't looked into it a ton. I'd love to watch someone who knows what they're talking about review it
@@CallumUpton apologize thanks I went on Reddit and clicked the last discord post from a dev back 10 months ago and it was a dead link so thought the discord was gone as well should have searched for the direct link to the discord first
Was a lot of people's first lesson to not throwing away your money. Only kickstarter's I've supported already offered a demo/beta I'd be happy even if it was never updated. Devs also had already worked years and had a working game already.
Man, I remember this game being hot news when I was at high school. Now I've finished uni, migrated and worked for 4 years, and still it hasn't been even remotely fixed. The absolute state of that dev team, holy fuck...
Oh no. I've heard of Cube World. I was a dumb bloke back in the day that backed this. I figured the game wouldn't change from it's current formular and kept building on what it was. Instead it had a full reboot, and was lesser for it. Wait a second. 17:54 !! Didn't know he was doing this, and even now knowing it, I wont be passing money his way again. Trying to sell a game that was already sold to people. How very corporate.
If instead of releasing the beta he had just "officially" re-released the alpha it would be remembered well... but he basically did everything possible to give the middle finger to his players.
Idk, it just seems he doesn't want to deal with his game being this big thing with thousands or many times more playing. He just wants to make a game for him and his partner, that him and his partner enjoy playing. He's not making this for "the fans". He doesn't really care about the fans necessarily, or at least, as much as 99% of other games. And if you ask me, that's fine. Buying in to early access has always been a dumb idea unless you're prepared to never see the game fully release or change massively. That goes for ALL early access games, I don't want to hear "It can help financially support the developer to get it to release!". He CLEARLY wans't in this just for the money, it's CLEARLY a passion project and he had so many chances to make BANK on this game but instead shut it down. All I see is a guy who wanted to make a cool game he enjoyed, with himself as the target audience, who, like almost every other dev decided to make it publically available. When it blew up and got a lot of attention, he felt overwhelmed and didn't want or know how to handle it, so just kinda tried to ignore it and carry on making his game for himself. Everytime he'd post something new about what he was working on (Like so many creatives like to do. People like to show off what they've done and been doing that they're proud of, duh), he'd get a deluge of hate and attention that made him want to leave again. Frankly I see a lot of myself in his actions. I wouldn't want to hire new staff for a passion project that could jeopordise my vision, nor would I even know where to look to start, nor would I want to deal with the headache of having to pay employees.
Here is why I'm gonna disagree with you. The moment he put the game up for sale, he stopped making the game for himself. When you put something up for sale, it is meant for others. Miss leading advertisement is never okay, you can't promise one thing, then to alter it cause you like that better without any communication what so ever. If he got overwhelmed he could have looked into appointing community managers. Also, when people backed him, it were the early days of crowd funded games. Many hadn't learned their lessons yet with all the devs that ran off with the money or released a very different game then advertised. These day's, sure you know how it might turn out, back then it was relatively new and most of us wanted to believe in the good of the developers. If he was overwhelmed that is okay, but that is no excuse to go zero contact with the people who backed you. Especially when you go all silent for a while, then suddenly announce "Big patch coming soon!" just for that patch never to arrive and followed by years of no communication till suddenly "O hey guys I'm back, game will be released then and then" but not mentioning the game isn't as the Alpha anymore, no mentioning the features that didn't made the cut. Heck many of us would have understood that some mechanics would not be in the game, it can turn out during development that a mechanic just doesn't work or doesn't add anything to the game so it's cut. Happens all the time, but he should have communicated that when he returned, he should have been honest and transparent. If he just wanted to make a game for himself and his wife then he should have done so and just one day release it for the public. So there is no hype, no expectations, no one knowing any better then that game is the game people get to play.
For me it seems to be that Wollay did thought that it was an actual DDOS attack because of his inexperience. The people who say otherwise seem to know a lot about the subject and probably think that the rest of the world knows as much as them.
@@zhan146 I really don't understnad what you're saying. But. Yes. A random person that made his first game and probably knows little about actual ddos attacks will probably think that it was a ddos attack when his sever went online because of high activity. Again. You're looking for malice in a place were ignorance explains it better.
As a developer, I completely understand Wollay and his decisions. It was always marketed as a passion project and pressure from the community does not help at all. Going radio silence is the only way to go for a passion project
Thankfully the other very hyped Minecraft-eqsue game - Hytale, hasnt gone early access and are very secretive about their progress, exactly to avoid situations like this. They will release a product when (if ever) its finished without feeling like they're scamming people of their money.
There's a part of me hoping that CW will get that new update that brings back those alpha features, but the longer we go, the more hopeless it feels. The CW discord still lights up with stuff and emails, but it's hard to keep the faith for this long. I got the Alpha along with a friend back when it was open, and the Alpha is amazing with friends. Shocked Wollay hasn't released a beta branch with the Alpha on it so we can go back without having to pirate a copy because the server and websites been down for years.
I feel that, I tried the very first build upon release with some friends, it was amazing to play that time. I was 14 and minecraft alpha was on during that time too which I gamed hard. Watching Cube World eventually fall into oblivion was quite said
I'd also love to see you go wild on dreamworld again and maybe give an update on nightmare world. You've been quite silent about these or at least I didn't hear or see that you no longer care about them
My take that nobody asked is. This guy is a scam artist crying for alleged issues to earn internet brownie points if he had such problems he shouldn't have prolonged anything nor guttes the game, he should've returned the money. Not everyone is as privileged for people to fund your dream, the moment money was involved this no longer was just a passion project but a product and he totally delivered something not advertised.
damn i cant believe this game still gets talked about . i remember playing it when i was a kid, downloaded it for free (probs along with some dodgy virus) and played it alll the damn time . found out you could use cheat engine to change stats of gear and then i just enjoyed one shotting every mfer in existence
Yeah I still just don't buy the DDoS excuse. I understand the mental health aspect but to just say "yeah actually it was a ddos attack trust me bro it was sooooooo bad" and then essentially dropping the project is just, bleh.
I bought the game when I was in my 3rd year of university. By the time wolf released the game I had finished university, found a job, moved out, started a family. And this guy couldn't finish an almost finished game and made it neven worse. Btw. He met with guys from Nintendo at gamescome (probably they wanted to be released on Wii), and he even this faked up.
I still believe there is a reality where we can get an awesome game but not if he isn't held accountable in real life in some shape or form. Because if he can ditch he will.
Regardless of any struggles, regardless of whether he thought it was a real attack or not, regardless of everything, this developer has an established pattern at this point. This is how he operates, and everyone should be aware of that. I honestly don't think he's malicious but I also don't think it really matters. The results are the results either way.
Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/hellofresh_callumupton, use my code POGHF132797, and receive 16 free meals + free dessert for life while subscription is active.
Google them first
Why are you hiding comments about HelloFresh being union busters that grossly mistreat their workers, Callum?
Either you or RUclips are deleting comments here and it's very suspicious. I think its because they're mentioning UB. They're not even swearing. I swore and my comment is currently fine but theirs just stating the facts are all gone!
Heard replies are getting hidden on this comment. Commenting to check notifications and see for myself if Callum is actually doing that.
@@detroitmetrodolphinskull To be fair it might be RUclips sticking up for their fellow corpo dictators.
This game taught young me to not get swept up in early access hype, the worst part is I don't even know how to access my account so I had to torrent the finished game anyway
Lol, same. I learned a year too late you were supposed to grab a Steam key from the page on his website with your original login, except his website had been down for months at that point. Ended up getting the game "somewhere else", played it for 30 minutes, and never again afterwards lol
You should be able to email wolley for a steam key (which he stated and others done)
@@pasu2k I just e-mailed him and he gave me the steam key.
@@miser2570 Yep, I had to do this, and got my steam key within like 48 hours of sending the email.
Haven't played the game since, but was at least happy I had my key, considering I paid for the game.
X - rebirth fixed that naivity for me :)
Im not here to fan or douse the flames, but i remember the first server test I did for a MMO game i was trying to make years ago had a super high traffic spike during the first couple playtests & I blamed the players for DDOSing me. Turned out, I just had shitty code that was pinging the server once per frame on many clients 😂😂😂
LMAO, we've all been there
Yeah, don't feel too bad. That is something that QA team would have figured out prior to an alpha release. But with an indie dev, those are hard to come by.
@@tripolarmdisorder7696 he thought people wanting to buy and play his game was a ddos attackcis so lame
What’s sad is that the Alpha version was technically better and felt more feature complete than the “release” version, since so much the game was changed or gutted in the “release”.
yeah i felt this, the originbal launch and the 1st updates were great, then the big change after he came back game felt bad and basic
Honestly, his biggest mistake was taking money from people early. Disappear for years... completely change the game... whatever... as long as people haven't entrusted you with their hard earned money. I do feel for the guy, but he handled it all really badly.
Nah, i disagree a bit. money for a small dev is important to continue developing. bills need to be paid. but going years without updates, even to dissuade "maybe hes dead" rumors. that's not okay.
@@Shivana246 The point is that taking money means you owe people. If you just want to do your own thing, find a different source of income.
@@unrighteous8745 Putting money towards a alpha/beta/indie dev is an investment. And letting the people supporting you know that you are still actively working on it is how you keep the trust that they will get the product. Updates about possible new features allows the community to give feedback before a ton of time is wasted. communication is the most important thing.
You're right that the dev owes people. they owe a response.
I feel sorry for him too. But at the very least, it was a show casing on how to /not/ handle releasing a passion project to the world.
I think that this problem wouldn't be a thing if he communicated properly
I suffer from frequent anxiety, so I _want_ to give the guy sympathy... But I can't because of his lying. Especially to people who _paid him money._
Having an anxiety attack as a nearly-solo indie dev and just wanting / needing to hide under a rock for a while to recuperate is understandable. But he should've been honest about it and explained he was going to be a digital hermit that only makes update posts every X months (and then stick to the schedule). By lying about the DDoS attack, I now have to wonder if he's lying about the anxiety as well. His whole character becomes suspect.
Accepting money means increased responsibility.
The vast majority of people that I know that claim to have anxiety typically do so when they ate trying to rationalize poor behavior.
Next time any of you are drawn to use your anxiety as an excuse to behave poorly, remember, you are just like this developer.
I find it incredibly ironic how in his pursuit for "perfection" and what not he ended up ruining what made the game good to begin with, and since ko one could play the bloody thing, no one could stop him while there was still time
Hellofresh actually mistreats their workers and even forced them to be unable to unionize. They're awful.
Oof. Heap big sad. Corporation being corporation. I bet you are using a device made with 3rd world slave labor to post your emotionally manipulative comment.
So does youtube and the maker of the phone/pc parts you used to see and comment on this video, stop whining
@@franciscomoraes8464everything is evil, stop complaining that things are evil. Just be evil, gosh.
I second this, they're skirting legality or even breaking laws with this mistreatment in their country of origin, Germany.
@franciscomoraes8464 I use second hand pc parts and phone, dumbass 🙃
He vanished... AGAIN???
The fans say that is his thing, that is what he does. Yeah great, but when you work on a game and you disappear for a long time, years, without any form of communication, people gonna get pissed and assume you ran off with the money.
He can't keep getting away with it!
@@Jorendo Yeah, I wouldn't just accept that if I paid for it. If he can't get his anxiety in check he shouldn't be releasing anything to the public.
he did not, for once, he is still active on twitter, last update was a week ago, red flags are still there tho
@@Ditchhead Exactly, or at least appoint/hire community managers who can deal with the public for him while he focuses on just making the game. Heck I'm pretty sure plenty of fans would run his Discord. Twitter, etc. for free. He can just tell them what is coming up and they can post it for him, respond to messages, etc.
The DDOS attacks and their timing sound more like a server being crushed under the weight of fans trying to buy the game en masse.
Absolutely, but back then as a 14 years without any money, i used to play Cube World cracked version, glad to say that i didn't balought it in 2013. After i saw the new version in 2020 and those many negative comments, i bought it. And it's still a great game meanwhile, it has the same atmosphere with more unique game mechanism. I have 50hours in it, sadly the game still has many bugs and insane CPU usage... Maybe i look around in modpacks.
A big lesson on why producers/publishers aren't completely bad.
Having deadlines, while being annoying, can prevent issues like this.
As a SWE, yes.
External deadlines can push you to ensure you get things done on time but they can also force you to release a project you know isn't ready and needs more time in the oven. But then on the other end you have this. There's just no perfect method, really.
The fan deadlines are literally what screwed him over dummy
Having a deadline of "Out by Christmas" will ruin the product, every time!
Having a deadline like "Update of any sort each season" will push productivity. There is a difference between "guys in a shed" and "mega corp making shareholders happy".
@@MazeFrame
Not all mega corps are bad. Nintendo's 1st party games, whatever you think of them, have never been rushed and are overall excellently polished. A few titles have too little content for the price in some fans eyes, but the content that IS there is enjoyable for those who like the genre. I'd also like to point you to Peter Molyneux as an indie creator who had very little influence from publishers but still was "that guy who overpromised to the media and then the programmers had to scramble to include those features." It doesn't matter if it's a megacorp or an indie studio, it matters whose at the helm.
Cube World was the worst birthday gift I ever asked for. All the years later it still rings true.
This dude needs therapy; and I don't mean that in a malicious way. He genuinely needs to work on his massive anxiety issues with a professional. He seems like a well-meaning guy who went hard freeze and then flight when faced with thousands of virtual eyes on him. As long as he continues that vicious cycle, he's never going to make the game either he or the players truly want.
Wollay belongs working for a game design company not an indie since his talent is exceptional but his people management skills are beyond pathetic so if he can just become part of a team away from that then his work could honestly be impressive when he’s not the one at the helm
He is indeed very talented as a dev but he lacks any ability for PR or simole communication or leadership
He is indeed very talented as a dev but he lacks any ability for PR or simole communication or leadership
It's been said before but is worth repeating: People like this guy and Phil Fish could do amazing work if only they trusted other people to help them. I do realise it's tied up with mental health problems (believe me, I know that intimately) but honestly that's more an indictment of attitudes toward mental health in general. I'm not downplaying the damage done to the mentality of fans over this, I just hope that future developers learn lessons from this and understand that seeking help is not being weak or losing control of a project.
TL;DR mental illness isn't a "trust issue"
I'm an indie gamedev and no one will help me. It isn't a matter of trust. I'm married with 3 kids and have been unable to get work for 2 years. I've applied for hundreds of jobs both inside and outside my industry (I'm a software developer).
I've been asking for help, tried social media, even made a Discord server. I first heard about the Cubeworld fiasco a few years ago and have specifically tried to avoid the kinds of mistakes described.
But i have no hype, no fan community, no volunteers, and no money. But sure, call it a "trust" issue. I have a therapist and medication but those are the only things the state & fed will provide.
My SBA loan applications were denied (i have no cash flow bc the game isn't done, obvs), I'm facing foreclosure on my home bc I've been out of work for 2 years. People like to give "advice" away but unless you're a gamedev yourself you don't understand the actual problems.
And if you try to open up about your problems (eg. like I'm doing here) then randos will "investigate" you, call you a liar, dox you, and produce video "analysis," "exposure," "takedown," or "post-mortem" and profit from your situation.
But sure, it's a "trust" issue. Like having your personal problems exploited on social media (for those sweet, sweet HelloFresh dollars) isn't the kind of thing that would give you trust issues in the first place?
I find it wild that he's rebuilding the game in UE5. Switching engines for a longstanding project either means nothing was done in a decade or the scope has gotten soo out of control that they feel the need to regain previous players with some new bells and whistles.
That is a *massive* thing to do... insane after this long and given the track record
It's baffling to me, if Wollay just updated the damn game and removed the region lock for items many reviews would turn positive. The game was almost fine, he just did the most brain-dead thing possible without informing any of the fanbase.
He's just repeating his mistake again. Nobody asked for a UE5 CubeWorld, just the CubeWorld they *did* have a chance to play at first
Sounds to me like he couldn't handle all the quirks he was dealing with in the current/previous engine. At that point, that's a matter of understanding the limits of the engine you're working with. 100% his fault for not pulling through with the current engine instead of trying to remake the game in a different one.
This is probably due to his perfectionism and a good example of how it's one of the worst traits you can have as an artist. Without an objective measurement of what "perfect" even is, the only thing it results in is a chase after an ever-changing ideal.
Great to see you back man
thanks! i took some time off to re-structure my content and make sure its sustainable going forward. im glad people are liking the death of series XD
I remember getting into this game super early and playing the Alpha in 2013. I was dealing with a lot, studying to get into Uni as a game dev, working nights in a fridge to support my mum with rent and bills who had cancer and couldn't work. In August she sadly passed away, as my last living family member I obviously fell off this games radar as I swiftly had to grieve, go to University and deal with it all, sadly unhealthy and rebuild my life. But because of that it holds an odd memory of remembrance in my mind for the few months I did play it. I was disconnected from all this hate the developer was getting though, I might not be able to fully sympathise and understand how he felt but i do feel for them. The hunt for the next Minecraft was pretty insatiable for some.
He needed a manager/publisher. Perfectionism is no excuse for anything.
Okay, look, I really wanna feel bad for this guy, as a person who has anxiety so bad I literally get disability checks for it. But sometimes, you really gotta look in the mirror and ask yourself 'Can I do this?'. You gotta be humble and recognize when you can't handle shit, ESPECIALLY when you're taking peoples money.
Would I cry, run and hide and leave the internet for months with no updates at the slightest issue? Quite possibly. But I wouldn't keep the game going like this in the first place. If I made a little indie game that blew up into a smash hit with fans circling me like vultures, I'd say 'Fuck this, sorry guys, I can't handle it.'. Of course that's hard to do, I spent most of my teen years struggling with that, but again, you're taking peoples money, at SOME point you gotta face the music and realize you can't handle this.
I watched another video sometime ago analyzing the so-called "DDoS attack", and that it doesn't seem like the case. I don't remember how it was exactly explained but it had something to do with how capped Wollay's network was set up, that couldn't meet such high demand. And that misconception caused him confusion.
might be one off wickedwiz's videos. I know he has a "What went wrong" series. Pretty sure he covered this game as well
@@Knae Yep, Wicked Wiz has covered it twice now.... he just did an updated video on CubeWorld after playing the latest version of it on stream, and he definitely covered the whole DDoS question.
The beginning of your video really speaks to me in a different way. I bought a production line for a hydraulic breather (an air filter), and thought I could make some money on the side. It was cheap (scrap price) for everything.
....well a few months later, I have government contractors wanting this product, and I'm currently working on becoming ISO certified. It's a much bigger deal than I could have ever anticipated.
I bought the original alpha, I bought the first steam release. And I'm not going to buy the next one unless Wollay has proven he can handle himself. Dude loses his marbles at the slightest issue and just runs away.
On one hand I kinda get it. Anxiety is a bitch to deal with BUT running away from your problems is not the way to go.
I almost bought it. Glad I never did.
You got the steam release key if you had bought the alpha.
The first time is undertandable the second time is an issue the third is just poor emotional inteligence. No offense but if he wants anxiety at check he should start taking madication and theraphy
fwiw he had openly tried to court his fanbase from Minecraft after the controversy that was the Combat Update. It wasn't a leap of logic to conclude his "DDoS attack" was just people genuinely trying to register for the game.
There is a game called Veloren, very much inspired by CubeWorld, in fact an attempt to implement and improve the original concept of the game. It is completely free and open source, written on a custom game engine in Rust programming language. The game is still in development, but there is already a public version with working multiplayer. Although I have certain complaints about the developers themselves, in general I think that CubeWorld fans should know about such a successor to the original idea.
Upd: typos
Did you have issues with any of the developers?
I am 100% convinced CubeWorld fans will *NEVER* learn their lesson...
I don't believe he will do it any different. Seems like he constantly repeats the disappearing act and seems to be highly sensitive. He needs to hire proper people to runt he business for him while he focuses solely on the development part. That they are deleting negative comments is a massive red flag and if he got scared cause of DDOS attacks, he will be even more scared for player backlash who have not forgotten Cubeworld.
I still can't believe he went zero contact on us all who supported him early back then, just to then release a different game that was inferior to the Alpha. He promised a big patch just went he disappeared. His fanboys defend him till no end, but he has a lot proof if he wishes to get any money from me ever again. He better make Omega a free update or a free version for those who bought Cubeworld, as a backer I deserve the game that was promised would be weird if he now makes that game and then tell us backers we need to pay for it again.
This should legit be a case study on why a lack of developer transparancy/interaction can cause a game to flop.
But did it flop? The guy created a game with his wife and probably made millions. I’m sure even bigger Indy studios with a dozen employees would want that type of exposure and sales.
i just hope to god no one ever DDOSes you
@@TheMmoHaven Financially, probably not. However, losing your fans' trust is hard to recover from. We'll see how the reception for Omega goes.
@@numberonedad except he didnt get ddosed, his shitty server wasnt good enough to handle all the hype the game had
@@sughondeznuhtz3868 no kidding maybe i was being sarcastic?
Regarding the DDOS attack
The college I went to releases results for end of semester exams for all students at the same time.
Every year there was a DDOS attack on the results portal, until IT's suggestion of staggering the release of them by school and year was taking up.
Suddenly there wasn't a DDOS attacks anymore.
Callum, I know sometimes RUclipsrs need to take sponsors, however there are a few sponsors I've recently decided to immediately stop viewing videos on in hopes that it will show that I don't support the sponsors. Hello fresh is one of them (better help is another).
Good luck! I hope your future videos won't have sponsorships from companies that do bad things.
Interesting, played it originally when the alpha came out. There was basically no content in the game, but kept me entertained for a few hours. Didn't think much of it after that. Had no idea development dragged on so long
What's really funny is that there was arguably less content when the game finally came out years later.
@@Ookamisieshin A lot less. Original alpha actually had a fair amount of content. But a big chunk of it was pretty rare to come in contact with. The progression was very lacking though.
The fact that wollay started posting again and people are still hyped for this game is a lesson that some people are just beyond saving and will get themselves scammed.
Man, Wollay simply cannot find it in him how to handle all that attention. Blessed be the day he gets someone to handle the heat for him, I imagine
He's a fucking coward that will never face consequences for his own actions.
I do hope the best for Wolly and feel bad what has happened. I was deeply involved in the Cube World community for a long time before the release. People in the community slowly reached out to Wollay for years via emails. Sharing their experience with the game and hoping to give him the motivations to continue. He would share his experience during this time and people were able to get him to come out.
I'll just say, there is a side of this story that isn't public. But it felt like years of community effort to help build up his confidence that the world didn't hate him, and bring him out of his shell. Then he got hit with such hard backlash because the game was subpar.
I really do wish he would hire a community manager or someone to help him with business. And part of everything that's happened is on him for not doing this. Making a bad a game is one thing, the community putting so much hope and faith on a two person team is another. There's honestly so much here that's simply out of perspective.
I'm glad he hasn't given up completely. I don't buy the whole greedy story. He didn't sell his games for years while he worked on it because he didn't believe he could finish the game everyone wanted. It's easy to hate on Wollay, but it's important to remember you're dealing with a person on the otherside of the screen.
Watch the Cube World Omega release be a barebones game with half the features of the alpha and tge dev disappearing for another five years.
Finally a story I haven't heard anything about before, presented in an easy-to-digest form and with a cheeky twist (the DDoS, etc).
12:25 "we got ddosed as soon as we opened the store"
Bro, you can't be serious you mistook everybody super excited to play and buy your game as a DDOS attack? Are you serious? You had a gold mine and you threw it away? You wanted to be a game developer. You had it right there and you threw it away
Anxiety can really mess with your head and turn clear signs of enthusiasm into "everyone hates me and wants me to fail"
When your game is so hype, it’s not a DDOS - it’s popular. Get with your IP & data centers to fix it.
nah thats definitely not fully true
edit: huh maybe yes maybe no
This was 2008. Weren't a lot of safeguards for this at the time.
@@justinwhite2725 AWS was a thing in 2013. Always has been a thing.
@@justinwhite2725 It was 2013, not 2008, get your facts straight.
I remember seeing this game come to steam and I rolled my eyes. Was genuinely surprised the game even still existed. I bought into the early alpha when I was about 13 and it was probably the first game I ever felt truly scammed by.
Speaking of development going silent; How is Nightmare World coming along?
feel like it wasn't only ever a project to riff off dream world
and considering that hasn't update in over a year... yeah lol
@@jacend9793 well development is still ongoing. They did say that any devlogs or development updates would lessen. But any informative update and state of the game remain absent for over a year, yes, hence the question.
This is a prime example of ¨how about releasing your game AFTER it's finished and play tested.¨
A lot less hassle I'd imagine. Quit jumping the gun and learn to love patience. 😀
the changes made to the "release version" are the strangest part of this story to me. Dude made a relatively good game and took a dump on it for what would appear to be no reason?
I mean, the pattern of Wollay's previous behavior makes it easy to predict what will happen once CW Omega releases. He will get backlash and then vanish again silently crying about him being the victim
Years ago (We are talking 8 plus or something) I watched one of my favorite youtuber duos cover this game. They were having a blast, because this was back when cube world was still being worked on. We are talking the about the very start of the game's development here.
I thought about getting the game, but then I forgot about it after a while. Now I'm glad that happened. Means I never spent any money on the game.
4:00 with regards to this DDOS "attack", it wasn't a very proven "attack" as it was merely speculated to be one. Considering how the "attacks" only happened during the night(or mostly), another explanation could be that his store couldn't handle the overwhelming amount of costumers who'd start trying to buy the game from Europe, as Europeans are time wise about 4-8 hours ahead.
(Note, this is addressed later in the video, somewhat)
Do you still do the podcast with Josh Hayes? Also, really happy about your great improvements on your videos recently!
11 years. What a developer with no social skills
wow we're at the point where we're describing kickstarters in the term of decades
His incompetence is staggering, honestly. He should have just sold the game long ago or something.
If you can't handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.
i remember buying this when it first was up for sale, had completely forgotten it.
I really sympathize with Wollay. As an aspiring indie game dev with social anxiety and a preference for seclusion and complete creative control, I could see myself falling into the same traps of my own making. Having to choose between the stress of handling everything on my own so that I wouldn't have to deal with the stress of assembling and working with a team, or trying to put aside my anxiety and introversion long enough to get some help would genuinely be a very difficult decision for me. We are so often our own worst enemy. Wollay's story has been a cautionary tale to me that I think about often. I hope he can learn from his mistakes too. I genuinely feel for the guy and I'd like to see him succeed.
Ok the following is not backed up by any evidence, please have this in mind:
I saw another youtuber who suggested that there were no real DDOS attack but there were just so many people that wanted to access the shop that it looked like one, but actually was just so high demand.
EDIT:
AH you adrress that too.
I felt bad for Wallay up to the point when you mentioned that he was possibly lying about being attacked. He may have been scared about the amount of traffic he was getting, but lying. Then using that lie to deflect criticism.
I think we all have "spaceships" in our project boxes and folders: Stuff that floats around and takes up space.
There is a reason I personally NEVER publish anything beyond silly memes: What if someones wants to give me money for it?
I know damn well I would not have the strength to say no to money! And with money, suddenly there is expectations. One guy in a shed can only get so much done. I find people exhausting so I would do like Wolley and just... drop the PR.
Concerning the DDoS attack story: Sidney Decker may want to have a word with the author(s) of that theory. Because in hindsight, with no stress, with more information available and knowing the outcome, it is obvious what went wrong.
This will be one of the most pirated games in history, and for reasons that were totally avoidable.
I just begun a game two days ago. Couldn't launch it before. Having fun !
A lot shows that he may have been a good programmer, but lacked skills in every other area of being a developer. Time management, setting and keeping milestones, feature design are as important to a developer as programming itself. The best code doesn't matter if you can't deliver what was promised in time.
The whole "several reworks from scratch" already were a big red flag. I would only completely refactor a feature from scratch if absolutely necessary. Everything else is mostly not worth the time. Refactor it multiple times from scratch? Not in my life. Clearly he started programming before actually knowing what he wanted to create and spent way too little time in the design phase of the feature.
Can I just say this video doesn’t go over that the alpha was actually a fantastic game. It really was.
The best thing Wollay did was inspire free games like Veloren to be built in the aftermath.
Forget about Cubeworld, just release Picroma Plasma, the amazing vector editor they have been keeping from us for years.
Ooh boi, I was there during the Beta debacle. It was very stressful, I remember it felt like an actual war was going on. The very highhorse defenders attacking anything resembling criticism, with venomous comments on all sides. But there was still a solid core of genuine people who wanted to make the release good and desperately kept trying to suggest changes, or even just delay the release because EVERYONE knew it would be a disaster if it released in that state. Then we just had the war feeling like trying to speak through a glass door with muffled answers, and at the end, radio silence, it released, it crashed and burned.
Way too much good will was burnt on wanting Wollay to have a success. No more, I can't defend or even care about anything related to Cubeworld. It's too depressing, and regardless of if he's actually a master connist or as he claims to be, I don't want anything from him anymore.
"no sense of becoming stronger, you just reset everytime you went somewhere new"
So basically Ash Ketchum's journey in the pokemon anime?
atleast ash finally won something after all this years, wollay would never
Omg this is real, you're really releasing this video!
Hype isn't a measure of how excited people are for a game...its a measure of how over speculated it is, people start making unrealistic requests, blowing small things out of proportion, making assumptions based on popular opinion and not fact... all it causes are unnecessary problems.
the worst thing is that this video should be irrelevant by now, but it isn't.
cube world is for long now one of those games that, if you get reminded of it, you think to your self 'oh right, i frogot...that was a thing.' as most people already moved on.
but wollay manages to keep this whole thing relevant, to refresh peoples anger again and again by promising things, vanishing, repeat.
if anything at all this video should be a look back at the scam that cube world was.
just that this wouldn't be true, as with how things are going...the scam is still going on.
honestly i don't get it.
everyone would be better off if cube world was 'dead'.
wollay wouldn't have to deal with people that are pissed and the people would get closure.
if you can't even take the slightest criticism then just take the chance to get off the radar and don't start posting again as soon as you managed to get off...
I hope Cube World Omega is the game that we've been waiting for since 2013 but as someone who has bought the Alpha, I'm just going to write off the money I spent and not hold my breath for it.
Wollas seems like somebody who is not able to work without a boss, but maybe he gets an anxiety attack if he receives bad feedback.
The lying about ddossing when it was just RUclipsrs playing the game, showing people how to buy it, and boom"im being attacked!!!!!"
No you were getting so many fans and everyone loved it!
Can you do a postmortem video on nightmare world development or did I miss the video. Glad you didn’t take any money for it but was odd it just fell off and I can’t find that it was officially abandoned
its not abandoned haha, i had a long discussion in the NMW discord regarding this, i know not everyone is in there or saw it, but thats the best place as it wasnt just a post or picture
@CallumUpton any chance you'll do another followup on DW? They recently did a big release I wanted to hate on but in it they not only seem to have made huge progress but they also decided to go f2p and refund any buyers who feel they wouldn't have paid if the game was always f2p.
It actually seemed like a pretty impressive move but I haven't looked into it a ton. I'd love to watch someone who knows what they're talking about review it
@@CallumUpton apologize thanks I went on Reddit and clicked the last discord post from a dev back 10 months ago and it was a dead link so thought the discord was gone as well should have searched for the direct link to the discord first
To be fair, the dev is actively working on it, again, until he leaves.... again...
Was a lot of people's first lesson to not throwing away your money. Only kickstarter's I've supported already offered a demo/beta I'd be happy even if it was never updated. Devs also had already worked years and had a working game already.
Man, I remember this game being hot news when I was at high school. Now I've finished uni, migrated and worked for 4 years, and still it hasn't been even remotely fixed. The absolute state of that dev team, holy fuck...
I hope that Wollay will pull off a Hello Games with Cube World Omega.
Oh no. I've heard of Cube World. I was a dumb bloke back in the day that backed this. I figured the game wouldn't change from it's current formular and kept building on what it was. Instead it had a full reboot, and was lesser for it.
Wait a second. 17:54 !! Didn't know he was doing this, and even now knowing it, I wont be passing money his way again. Trying to sell a game that was already sold to people. How very corporate.
If instead of releasing the beta he had just "officially" re-released the alpha it would be remembered well... but he basically did everything possible to give the middle finger to his players.
thanks for covering this. old cubeworld was amazing... so much potential and then you got the worst zone-locked gear ever.
insert a "Where's Wollay? (Wally)" joke here.
Idk, it just seems he doesn't want to deal with his game being this big thing with thousands or many times more playing. He just wants to make a game for him and his partner, that him and his partner enjoy playing. He's not making this for "the fans". He doesn't really care about the fans necessarily, or at least, as much as 99% of other games. And if you ask me, that's fine. Buying in to early access has always been a dumb idea unless you're prepared to never see the game fully release or change massively. That goes for ALL early access games, I don't want to hear "It can help financially support the developer to get it to release!". He CLEARLY wans't in this just for the money, it's CLEARLY a passion project and he had so many chances to make BANK on this game but instead shut it down.
All I see is a guy who wanted to make a cool game he enjoyed, with himself as the target audience, who, like almost every other dev decided to make it publically available. When it blew up and got a lot of attention, he felt overwhelmed and didn't want or know how to handle it, so just kinda tried to ignore it and carry on making his game for himself. Everytime he'd post something new about what he was working on (Like so many creatives like to do. People like to show off what they've done and been doing that they're proud of, duh), he'd get a deluge of hate and attention that made him want to leave again.
Frankly I see a lot of myself in his actions. I wouldn't want to hire new staff for a passion project that could jeopordise my vision, nor would I even know where to look to start, nor would I want to deal with the headache of having to pay employees.
then simply put you suck at game developing just like wollay
Here is why I'm gonna disagree with you. The moment he put the game up for sale, he stopped making the game for himself. When you put something up for sale, it is meant for others. Miss leading advertisement is never okay, you can't promise one thing, then to alter it cause you like that better without any communication what so ever. If he got overwhelmed he could have looked into appointing community managers.
Also, when people backed him, it were the early days of crowd funded games. Many hadn't learned their lessons yet with all the devs that ran off with the money or released a very different game then advertised. These day's, sure you know how it might turn out, back then it was relatively new and most of us wanted to believe in the good of the developers.
If he was overwhelmed that is okay, but that is no excuse to go zero contact with the people who backed you. Especially when you go all silent for a while, then suddenly announce "Big patch coming soon!" just for that patch never to arrive and followed by years of no communication till suddenly "O hey guys I'm back, game will be released then and then" but not mentioning the game isn't as the Alpha anymore, no mentioning the features that didn't made the cut. Heck many of us would have understood that some mechanics would not be in the game, it can turn out during development that a mechanic just doesn't work or doesn't add anything to the game so it's cut. Happens all the time, but he should have communicated that when he returned, he should have been honest and transparent.
If he just wanted to make a game for himself and his wife then he should have done so and just one day release it for the public. So there is no hype, no expectations, no one knowing any better then that game is the game people get to play.
@@Jorendoliterally people pressured him for a playable build
11 years is a long time to learn some important lessons, I'm not sure Wollay has, but I hope I'm wrong.
For me it seems to be that Wollay did thought that it was an actual DDOS attack because of his inexperience. The people who say otherwise seem to know a lot about the subject and probably think that the rest of the world knows as much as them.
because why the hell your first idea would be that you got ddos?
YOU a random person that made its first game?
@@zhan146 I really don't understnad what you're saying.
But. Yes. A random person that made his first game and probably knows little about actual ddos attacks will probably think that it was a ddos attack when his sever went online because of high activity.
Again. You're looking for malice in a place were ignorance explains it better.
When the world needed him most.. he vanished. Now I'm not saying he is the Avatar, but he might just well be 😂
Dude, Cube Word fans are something else...
They taking COPE to a new level...
Cube world was the first development hell game i knew about at like 9 years old thanks to good game spawn point lmao
As a developer, I completely understand Wollay and his decisions. It was always marketed as a passion project and pressure from the community does not help at all. Going radio silence is the only way to go for a passion project
Thankfully the other very hyped Minecraft-eqsue game - Hytale, hasnt gone early access and are very secretive about their progress, exactly to avoid situations like this. They will release a product when (if ever) its finished without feeling like they're scamming people of their money.
There's a part of me hoping that CW will get that new update that brings back those alpha features, but the longer we go, the more hopeless it feels. The CW discord still lights up with stuff and emails, but it's hard to keep the faith for this long. I got the Alpha along with a friend back when it was open, and the Alpha is amazing with friends.
Shocked Wollay hasn't released a beta branch with the Alpha on it so we can go back without having to pirate a copy because the server and websites been down for years.
I feel that, I tried the very first build upon release with some friends, it was amazing to play that time. I was 14 and minecraft alpha was on during that time too which I gamed hard. Watching Cube World eventually fall into oblivion was quite said
I'd also love to see you go wild on dreamworld again and maybe give an update on nightmare world. You've been quite silent about these or at least I didn't hear or see that you no longer care about them
Is this a reupload? I kind of remember this video from a while back
haha definitely not, i've never covered Cubeworld
@@CallumUpton sorry my mistake, I must have confused it by another video covering similar projects. But I swear I had a strange de'javu watching it.
Honestly this just makes me hope that Veloren continues to develop well. At least that's open source, so even if devs fall off then it's not dead.
loved the video! It does seem the teleprompter you were using was a bit too high. Made it a bit distracting to watch. Thanks for the great video
Wow, I remember being excited about this game all those years ago. I guess my reluctance to buy into the early game paid off.
My take that nobody asked is.
This guy is a scam artist crying for alleged issues to earn internet brownie points if he had such problems he shouldn't have prolonged anything nor guttes the game, he should've returned the money.
Not everyone is as privileged for people to fund your dream, the moment money was involved this no longer was just a passion project but a product and he totally delivered something not advertised.
damn i cant believe this game still gets talked about . i remember playing it when i was a kid, downloaded it for free (probs along with some dodgy virus) and played it alll the damn time . found out you could use cheat engine to change stats of gear and then i just enjoyed one shotting every mfer in existence
Yeah I still just don't buy the DDoS excuse. I understand the mental health aspect but to just say "yeah actually it was a ddos attack trust me bro it was sooooooo bad" and then essentially dropping the project is just, bleh.
Hello fresh union busts... :(
I bought the game when I was in my 3rd year of university.
By the time wolf released the game I had finished university, found a job, moved out, started a family.
And this guy couldn't finish an almost finished game and made it neven worse.
Btw. He met with guys from Nintendo at gamescome (probably they wanted to be released on Wii), and he even this faked up.
I still believe there is a reality where we can get an awesome game but not if he isn't held accountable in real life in some shape or form. Because if he can ditch he will.
No wonder Veloren was made
Regardless of any struggles, regardless of whether he thought it was a real attack or not, regardless of everything, this developer has an established pattern at this point. This is how he operates, and everyone should be aware of that. I honestly don't think he's malicious but I also don't think it really matters. The results are the results either way.