Interview - Florian Frankenberger

Hi Chris,

Just to clearify things: I was the lead dev of Towns just for the last two months.

1) Could you provide a little more detail as to why the development of Towns had to stop?

Basically I never said that the development has stoped at all. I just said that I can't work on the project anymore because I get paid a percentage of the current revenue that is made selling the game. And because the sells went down a lot below what was promised to me to be the minimum ever, I had to quit.


2) The game has reportedly sold over 200,000 copies and has made more than $2 million in gross revenue. Have those funds been reinvested into development?

If you mean by reinvested that they have been used to pay me for the development? Then no, the 200k copies have been sold before I joined SMP.


3) Many of the people that purchased Towns will have been under the assumption that the game would eventually be completed. Do you think they've been treated unfairly?

My problem answering this question properly is that I don't really know what SMP promised that people when they bought the game. But I'm under the impression that a lot of people have the feeling that they have been treated unfairly and that is of course bad. Games are about bringing fun and joy to people and not anger and hatered.


4) Do you believe they deserve compensation for their purchase?

In a way I think they should get what they paid for, so if you count the on going development or the releasing of the source as compensation, then yes, they should get that kind of compensation. But if you think they should get their money back, then I'm not really sure. Basically I consider investing in an Early Access game as some kind of risk investment. You can never be sure about the outcome. But if you knew that it was just an alpha or beta version back when you bought the game, then I think you are very well aware of the fact that the game can turn out in a way that might not be what you expected. Only thing that I'm not entirely sure of is if that was done when Towns was initially released as the whole Early Access program was quite new or not even there if I understood that correctly.


5)You mentioned the possibility of Towns 2 in your statement. Why do you think a new game is necessary?

From my point of view as getting only paid when we continue to sell the game, I thought this would be a good idea. As I mentioned earlier, I just got 15% of what was made in the months of March and April, selling the game. I think I can tell you that this is less than what I would have earned when I worked the same time at a super market. So the only way I thought we could continue like this is if we created a new game, at least that was my opinion back then. Now I know this announcement made it even worse. Because the people don't really see my position, they see the $2M that SMP made and that in their eyes the game is not finished, and I can certainly understand that this causes them to get angry.


6) Will backers of the original title need to purchase Towns 2?

At the moment I can't even say if Towns 2 will ever be a reality. Maybe it will be better, as Xavi mentioned in the forums,  when SMP sells the game to a company that is willing to invest money in its further development until all customers are happy with finished game.


7) Has this experience changed your approach to game development and/or early access as a concept?
Not really, I still believe in the concept of early access as a way to help ambitious indie projects to become a reality. I invested in a lot of games like that in the past, not only on Steam but also on Kickstarter and I will continue to do so in the future.


Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clearify some things.

Best regards,
Florian