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Studio changes policy after dev threatens to kill Gabe Newell
In October, after discovering issues with his game Paranautical Activity on Steam, independent developer Mike Maulbeck published a series of angry tweets that concluded with, "I am going to kill gabe newell. He is going to die." Newell is the founder of Valve, the company that runs Steam, the internet's largest gaming digital distribution hub. Because of the threat, Valve pulled Paranautical Activity from Steam and cut ties with Maulbeck's studio, Code Avarice. That same day, Maulbeck announced he was leaving Code Avarice entirely. Today, Code Avarice announced that Maulbeck is back with the studio. "Mike couldn't commit to his decision to leave Code Avarice," reads the studio's blog post. "[Co-owner Travis Pfenning] publicly denounced his departure, and in the weeks following his official stepping down Mike had second thoughts. Looking for a new source of income was extremely overwhelming and when it finally came time to put pen to paper, Mike and Travis agreed the best thing to do would be to have Mike return to Code Avarice." Maulbeck and Pfenning are taking a step back from the spotlight with a few changes to company policy: "The second half of this announcement is that we're taking steps to make Code Avarice more about the games and less about the people making them. From now on rather than blog posts being written and signed by one of the developers, they will all be co-written by Mike AND Travis, and written from the perspective of the company rather than an individual." [Image: Code Avarice]
Paranautical Activity takes to Kickstarter for continued development
The beta version of Paranautical Activity is already available for $10 directly from Code Avarice's website, but that hasn't stopped the developer from opening a campaign on Kickstarter to continue work on the game. The retro-styled FPS, which adds an intriguing dash of the random from roguelikes, was allegedly blocked from being published by Adult Swim on Steam in May due to having an active Greenlight page at the same time. Campaign backers can receive a 20 percent discount on Paranautical Activity by pledging $8 to Code Avarice's cause. The developer is seeking $10,000 on Kickstarter by September 3, of which it has already raised $4,301.
Paranautical Activity allegedly blocked from Steam release due to Greenlight conflict
After securing a publisher for its first-person shooter Paranautical Activity, indie developer Code Avarice claims that it has been blocked from a direct Steam release due to a conflict with a previously launched Steam Greenlight campaign. Code Avarice submitted Paranautical Activity to Steam Greenlight in August last year, and later entered talks with Adult Swim Games to assist with promotion and publishing. Code Avarice's Mike Maulbeck claims that Adult Swim's recent attempt to directly publish the game through Steam was turned down because Valve "didn't want to send the message that indies can seek out publishers to bypass Steam Greenlight." Maulbeck elaborates in the interview above, saying, "We just assumed that we would need Greenlight because everybody has to go through Greenlight now." Maulbeck continues: "Now we're just dead in the water. We've got a Greenlight campaign that we haven't touched in months, and we have to resurrect it from the ashes, because that's our only option at this point. "We can totally back out [of Adult Swim's publishing agreement] now if we want to," Maulbeck said. "We haven't officially decided if we want to go with them, but the fact that we have to get onto Steam [ourselves] is a real bummer." Addressing the situation, Valve's Doug Lombardi told Gamasutra, "We review Greenlight votes, reviews, and a variety of factors in the Greenlight process. However our message to indies regarding publishers is do it for your own reasons, but do not split your royalties with a publisher expecting an automatic 'Yes' on Greenlight."
