Project Resurgence is no more as the developer Nectar Game Studios has run out of money and is effectively dissolved.

NGS Dissolved & Future of Resurgence

Hello again my fellow Nectarines,

Rob here, with a heavy heart and somber news. In this update you'll find:

• Why Nectar has been dissolved
• What's next for the team
• Future of Resurgence
• Why no refunds
• Core demo links

It has been extremely difficult for me to write this update. I've tried, and I just couldn't get the words to come out. Emotionally, I've fallen into one of the darkest places in my life, and I'm just now digging myself out and starting to feel ok again. As the title states, we've run out of money and been forced to dissolve Nectar and put Resurgence on indefinite hiatus.

I apologize if this comes as a shock to you. It certainly was a shock to us. But I will try to explain the situation as best I can, and what that means for all of you and our beloved game.
What the Hell Happened?!

When you gave us your money and your faith a year and a half ago, we were convinced we had a solid plan and team to get the job done. But as development progressed, and the schedule started to slip, we found out how far off the mark we truly were. I'm not going to call it "indie-itis" because I find that to be a flippant and condescending term for small plucky teams taking a shot, and falling short of the mark. If you've never developed a game, it's easy to discount the thousands of man-hours, physical and mental energy, personal sacrifice, and plain luck it takes to succeed. And always remember Murphy's Law. Things go wrong, bugs happen, features need to be redesigned or cut, and teammates' life circumstances change. I'm going to go more in-depth with a full postmortem in a later update, covering what exactly went right and wrong, but in a nutshell, we discovered that we were easily making a half-million dollar game on less than half of that budget.

When the Kickstarter closed, we knew that money was only going to be enough to keep the core team going for a year of full-time paid development. That meant scaling down our 50 some volunteers to just 15 people, all getting paid a meager $9.50 per hour (the highest minimum wage in America at the time) to cover our basic living expenses and let us focus on development. We still managed to stretch the funds an extra six months, but as our original release date of January 2017 was looming we knew we had to make some tough decisions. If you're familiar with the Project Management Triangle, we chose to stick with Quality and Low Cost, which also meant abandoning Speed. So our path became clear. To continue development we didn't need to raise an insane amount of money, but we still needed more. And the best option there was to find a publisher.

We began the search for a publisher back in January. Any startup will tell you fundraising generally takes about 3-6 months with the CEO totally focused on that. I tried my best, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to dedicate all my time to that effort. As a small team, I still had to juggle my Creative Director responsibilities to keep the rest of the team moving forward. I'm not an experienced business guy, I'm a designer and producer, so I've had to learn to be an entrepreneur as I went. I needed help, and I asked Cohh to step up as my co-founder, but he just couldn't find the time with his streaming schedule. In March, I brought on an entrepreneur friend and game developer, Branden Middendorf, to help with the fundraising effort. Together, we contacted over 50 publishers, knowing they were our best shot for a "lead investor." In order to deliver on the vision of Resurgence we promised, we set out to raise a $500K seed round from a combination of publishers, angel investors, incubators, and venture capitalists. While a huge number (more than double our Kickstarter goal), that's pretty much the minimum to be taken seriously in the startup investment world. That amount would let us expand the team (finally hiring more programmers and artists), and fund another year of development. Getting a publisher deal was the first step that would have allowed all the other pieces to start falling into place, and we were so close.

Of the publishers we contacted, we had the best luck with the small indie ones. We had several rounds of interviews with Devolver Digital, Raw Fury, Versus Evil, Humble, and Team 17, but ultimately they all passed. Those interviews seemed to go so well, and we were so hopeful that we'd get an offer from at least one of them. Just $100K from a respected publisher would have given us our "lead investor" (the hardest part of fundraising), plus all the benefits a good publisher offers to developers and started the snowball of other investment deals. It's a lot like Kickstarter actually, no one wants to be attached to a project with no momentum, but people come out of the woodwork for one that looks like a sure thing.

Anyway, by June we had just enough money left in the bank for that month of payroll, and remaining bills. We had just released the new Explore demo and were hopeful that would convince the last couple publishers he hadn't heard from yet that we were worth a shot. But soon enough, they too said no. When the final rejection email came in, that was a crushing blow. I spiraled, as I saw the finality of my dream crumbling around me. We were out of time, money, and options. There was no other choice but to close up shop.

That's when I had an emergency meeting with Cohh, and he made an announcement on Twitch a few days later.

Future of Nectar

With no more runway, we came to the harsh realization that, like many other startups, our first venture had failed. I am deeply sorry it took so long to write this update (since many of you only follow us through these backer updates), but it was just too fresh of a wound. It felt like a death in the family, and I had to process my grief first. Then came the task of finalizing the paperwork, paying off our debts, and any other lingering issues. And since Nectar was the main source of income for most of us, we had to immediately set to finding new jobs. Many of us have had to take temporary work to keep the bills paid, but we are still looking for work in games. If you hear about any opportunities for passionate and dedicated cRPG enthusiasts (especially remote), we'd be most appreciative.

Despite the dissolving of Nectar Game Studios as a legal entity, the team itself still wants to keep working together in some way. We've all bonded a lot over the last 5 years working on this project, so there's a good chance we'll keep working together on something in our spare time once again. As soon as we figure out what that is, we'll start looking for volunteers again to join the team. This new phoenix team, rising from the ashes, will no longer be Nectar but we're going to keep the branding we've established for the short term. So anything new going on with the team will still go out on our existing social media platforms and website.

Refunds - One of the big questions we've seen so far is regarding refunds. As much as we'd love to refund all the backer pledges, that's simply just not possible. All that money has been spent on development, to get us this far. It's all gone. The only thing we can do is cancel all the pending add-ons and pre-orders in BackerKit. No one has been charged in BackerKit yet (unless you opted for Paypal), so we will still cancel those payments. Perhaps you've received a refund from a failed project in the past, but there's really no way to do that without someone else footing the bill. The only way I can see that happening is if another studio wanted to purchase the IP, assets, and codebase (a long shot to say the least). And to avoid any confusion, Kickstarter is not a store and pledges are not pre-orders (Kickstarter FAQ: Accountability). Pledges are legally considered donations or gifts so backing a project is essentially taking a gamble on something you'd like to see happen, but there are no guarantees. I'm just sorry we couldn't be one of those projects that are able to deliver.
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Thanks Hurls!

Project Resurgence has a new video update on their progress.

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Cohh Drops The Newest Update On The Progress Of Project Resurgence By Nectar Game Studios After The Successful Kickstarter

Playlist Of Updates Can Be Found Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Farflame spotted this Kickstarter wrap up for Project Resurgence:

Pre-Pro Wrap Up! Backer Surveys & Dehrgada Lore Intro

Welcome back, Nectarines!

Hi there, Rob here. Another month has passed, so it’s time for another update on our humble game. In this update you’ll find:

• Backer surveys sent! 
• Cohh Carnage - PR Update #3 
• New artwork and in-game screens 
• Team Additions 
• Dehrgada City lore 
• Shout Out - Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

We’ve been super busy last month, trying to wrap up our pre-production cycle. That means finishing up most of the planning and prototyping, having a solid plan of attack for the rest of development, and shifting focus to fleshing out our core mechanics. The result of the next phase will be our Core build, which is industry terminology for the first version of the game to include all the major gameplay systems working in a basic form. It won’t be pretty (polished art assets come later in Alpha and Beta), but it should convey the essence of the gameplay and be fun to play. The Core Systems Tests we plan to release to backers in the coming months will demonstrate our progress towards this milestone, and let us gather your invaluable feedback to make Resurgence better and better!

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Nectar Game Studios' Project Resurgence is going well:

Thanks, Greenlit, & The Road Ahead

We did it, Nectarines!

Wow, what an amazing 35 days! Rob here, and definitely not for the last time. :D

First of all, I want to take a minute to really appreciate what we’ve all accomplished together. We raised over $184 thousand from over three thousand people! On average, that’s $56.70 per person. For a brand new studio working on an ambitious game, this is quite a feat! Some of you are friends and family, some of you have been following us for a long time, and most of you probably heard about us for the first time this past month. That doesn’t really matter though, since you’re here now, and that makes you NGS family. Each of your individual contributions have given us the necessary funds to make our dream game, and I know I speak for all of us when I say that we are eternally grateful. I hope you realize the gift you have given to us, because we will never forget. Because of your generosity and support, you made a dream come true. I can think of no greater gift than that.

So, in return, you have our word as professionals that will we keep our promises. We will maintain open and honest communication. We will always think of you first. If there are problems, you’ll be the first to know. We’re not going anywhere. You believed in us, and we aim to repay you by making the best damn game we possibly can, and you’re going to be with us every step of the way.

So truly, from all of us here at Nectar Game Studios, thank you so much! Here’s to you, and here’s to the future! :)

Steam Greenlight

As if the successful Kickstarter wasn’t enough good news, we also got the email last night that we have been Greenlit by the Steam community! In only 8 days we received a whopping 4,594 yes votes (70%), which is pretty unusual. From what I’ve read, it typically takes much longer to be greenlit and the top 100 games typically average a 50% yes rating. Thanks to all of you for helping us make that achievement possible too!

Thanks Eye!

Project Resurgence has been funded. With 39 hours to go, the counter is at $168K with a goal of $160K.

The next stretch goal is at $173K and is named 'Accessibility'.

In Project Resurgence Kickstarter update #12 the dialog system gets explained:

Dialogue System

Kelly here! Exploration is one of the key gameplay pillars of Project Resurgence, and by that we mean exploring characters (their personalities, motivations, and backgrounds) through conversation just as much as moving through the environments of Lumen. And in true roleplaying fashion, we find the most compelling aspect of character interactions in being faced with difficult decisions that truly make you consider the motivations and potential consequences of your actions. We intend for these moral decisions to be various shades of grey instead of an oversimplified black and white dichotomy. The concepts of “good and evil” are almost never so clear cut in reality, and so too will we delve the murky complicated areas in between. We want our story to be told like a novel, gripping and engrossing, where every choice you make matters; casting ripples into the future that will continue to affect your personal story and the fate of Lumen itself across all five episodes. The game is not segregated into story and mechanics, since the way you build your character and how you play directly change the story.

So, let’s start talking specifics. Persuasion is an art, and we offer 3 variations: reason (Persuade + INT), intimidate (Persuade + STR), and charm (Persuade + CLT). Appeal to a character’s sense, fear, or desire to get your way. Occasionally we will have extra options show up too, such as “bribe” (Persuade + cash) or “bluff” (Deception + CLT).

Obviously, not all of these will be equally effective for every character and situation. A thug might be more likely to be bribed than charmed, but a scientist might be more persuaded by reason over intimidation.

We also want options to change based on your interactions with characters. For example, if you interact with a character that you previously roughed up, it might take a lot less for you to intimidate them. A character might stick to their guns if you try to persuade them, but if you helped them out on a previous quest they might be more responsive to your suggestions. A character that you abandoned to die probably won’t be charmed by you...unless you can bluff your way around the situation. [...]

With six more days to go and almost $30K short of reaching their goal, the Kickstarter campaign for Project Resurgence has reached its 11th update about, Sound Design, Game Art Overview, Headgear Voting, & Digital Books Add-On.

Well hi! I am Sean Boyle, one of the sound designers at Nectar Game Studios. Today I’m pretty jazzed to tell you a bit about how we approach the sound design in Project Resurgence.

If you’re like most people, sound in a game probably doesn’t grab your attention much. Don’t worry though, you are totally normal! I still fall into that same trap sometimes, even after having made my career in audio. Sound is an integral piece of all video games though, and if you think it is unimportant I'm here to convince you otherwise. :)

First, let’s talk brains. When you hear a sound, it is processed in your temporal lobe. This is also where your memories and emotions are accessed. As a result, what you hear will very likely stir your emotions and memories, even if you are unaware of it. Pretty crazy, huh?

Here’s an experiment: try turning a game’s sound completely off. Does the game suddenly seem more dull? I think you will likely find it like a poorly cooked steak, dry and lacking flavor. While the game is visually complete, a core aspect of the experience is missing. Your mind is struggling more to process what is happening in game, due to a lack of audio feedback, and turning the sound back on should feel like a breath of fresh air.

At NGS, our goal is to make a rich and immersive soundscape for Project Resurgence. To do this, we are planning several major audio features, and today I’m going to elaborate more on character movement.

Thanks Ben.

Farflame spotted Kickstarter update #9 and #10 for Project Resurgence. The game is close to 75% funded with 11 days to go:

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Here’s a quick summary on some of stuff that we elaborated on in the video above. Most of this deals with the choices you’ll be presented with during character creation, as well as how you can advance your character by leveling up.

Tribes - Refer to Update 6 for more details. 

• Ragnar: ++STR, +FOC, -INT 
• Baric: ++INT, +DEX, -STR 
• Selysian: ++FOC, +CLT, -VIT 
• Dresdi: ++VIT, +INT, -CLT 
• Ashurad: ++Any

Backgrounds 

• Guardian: +Psyche, +Persuade 
• Wanderer: +Fortitude, +Awareness 
• Criminal: +Reflex, +Thievery

Attributes 

• Strength (STR): Melee Accuracy & Damage, Ranged Damage (archery & thrown), Health, Encumbrance, Throwing Distance, Strength Skills 
• Dexterity (DEX): Action Points (AP), Ranged Accuracy, Reflex, Stamina, Initiative, Dexterity Skills 
• Vitality (VIT): Health, Fortitude, Stamina, Damage Resistances, Vitality Skills 
• Intellect (INT): Weaving (Spell Power), Ambrosial Damage, Clarity, Intellect Skills, Dialog Options 
• Focus (FOC): AP, Accuracy Falloff Reduction, Crit Chance, Psyche, Clarity, Vision Distance, Focus Skills, Dialog Options 
• Clout (CLT): Max Companions, Weaving, Influence Radius, Dialog Options

Derived Stats 

• Health: How much damage Player can withstand (VIT + STR) 
• Stamina: Resource to activate physical abilities (melee) (VIT + DEX) 
• Clarity: Resource to activate mental abilities (spells) (FOC + INT) 
• Armor: Reduces damage from all attacks by flat value (Armor) 
• Deflection: Chance to totally avoid attacks (Reflex + Shield) 
• Reflex: Instinctive dodging, increases the chance to avoid damage from AoE attacks and traps (10 + DEX - Armor Penalty) 
• Fortitude: Hardiness, chance to recover from poison and sickness (10 + VIT) 
• Psyche: Willpower, chance to avoid fear and mental attacks (10 + FOC) 
• Damage Resistances: Reduces damage of certain types by percentage (Slash, Bash, Pierce, Fire, Cold, Electric, Nature, Spirit) 
• Reaction: Modifier applied to interactions with NPCs (social skills, buy/sell) 
• Action Points (AP): Speed, number of actions Player can perform in one round (4 + Dex + Foc) 
• Grit: Heroic luck/determination points that can be spent to surpass limitations 
• Melee Accuracy: Chance to hit with a melee attack/spell (STR) 
• Ranged Accuracy: Chance to hit with a ranged attack/spell (DEX) 
• Falloff Reduction: Reduces penalty of long distance ranged attacks (FOC) 
• Melee Damage Bonus: Increases damage for melee attacks (STR) 
• Range Damage Bonus: Increases damage for ranged attacks (archery & thrown) (STR) 
• Ambrosia Damage Bonus: Increases damage for ambrosial attacks (wand & staff) (INT) 
• Crit Chance: Chance an attack hits a vital spot, dealing extra Crit Damage (FOC + Weapon) 
• Crit Damage: Extra damage dealt from a Critical Hit (Weapon) 
• Max Throw Distance: Range to throw weapons (STR) 
• Weaving: Increases effectiveness of spells (INT) 
• Health Regen: Rate of Health recovery (VIT) 
• Stamina Regen: Rate of Stamina recovery (VIT + DEX) 
• Clarity Regen: Rate of Focus recovery (FOC) 
• Deathclock: How long before Player bleeds out at 0 Health (5 + (VIT / 5) rounds) 
• Initiative: Priority to act first in Turn-Based mode (0-20 + DEX) 
• Move Speed: Number of meters player can move for 1AP 
• Vision Distance: Range to reveal Fog of War and spot enemies (FOC - Light) 
• Encumbrance: Maximum weight/bulk character can hold in inventory (STR) 
• Influence Radius: Size of radius around Player aura abilities affect (CLT) 
• Max Companions: Maximum number of companions in party (CLT)

Leveling Up 

• Every level: +Health, +Damage Resistances, +all Skills 
• Every 2 levels: +1 to two different Attributes 
• Every10 levels: +1 to all Attributes 
• Player’s Stamina and Clarity do not increase just by leveling up. 
• Player does not distribute additional points at character creation. Level 1 characters all start with similar values with slight variation based on their tribe.

Farflame spotted this Kickstarter update for Project Resurgence - you can switch between turn-based and real-time combat anytime:

Hey hey Nectarines,

Rob here. Today is a momentous day. We’ve reached a huge milestone, and as of this afternoon we reached the $100,000 pledged mark! I can’t even express to you how good it feels to see six digits of funds raised on our campaign page. When Cohh and I first started talking about this project three years ago, I could not have imagined how gratifying it would be to know this many people believed in our dream and wanted to share it with us. We haven’t crossed the finish line yet, but I just wanted to thank you all again for wanting to take this journey with us. Each and every one of you is awesome in my book! :D

Oh, and you want to hear something crazy? I just crunched the numbers and realized that if every one of our backers told one friend about our game, and that friend pledged only $37 we would hit our goal tonight. One friend. Funded TONIGHT! I make it a point not to request anything from you guys (I believe Kickstarter is about giving, not pushing), and that’s why you’ll only hear it this one time. I’m asking you to find just one friend you think would love this project and tell them about it. And if we get lucky, then we can start talking stretch goals for all those extra nice features we know you all want. :)

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Combat System Breakdown

The subject that we’ve gotten the most comments and questions about is undoubtedly our combat system, particularly how we’re going to pull off both turn-based (TB) and real-time with pause (RT). So today, I wanted to elaborate further on what exactly we’ve been planning. My hope is that this will alleviate some concerns, but also stimulate more discussion on how we can best implement BOTH of these combat modes. We’ve already got a thread going for this on the forum, so drop in there if you have additional thoughts. And let’s not forget, combat will be largely avoidably all together by characters with the proper skills. Since combat is such a complex topic, this is going to be another longer update. Buckle up!

Design Philosophy

First off, let me hit the main points on exactly what we wanted to achieve with our combat system:

• Both TB and RT should be equally viable choices in all situations, and the player is never forced to use either. The choice comes down to player preference. 
• Both TB and RT operate on the same underlying ruleset. Player input is the major difference. 
• The combat mode can be switched during combat (between rounds). 
• Combat difficulty is balanced with TB mode in mind (to avoid being too easy). 
• RT mode is faster and more difficult (more prone to human error). 
• RT mode requires good companion AI (ideally customized to player preference). 
• Most combat encounters can be avoided if the right requirements are met.

The Kickstarter campaign for Project Resurgence is going well. Farflame spotted this update with shoutouts from Chris Avellone and Swen Vincke:

Tribes & 1st Backer Quest Rewards

Nectarines, assemble!

Rob here, and welcome back to another edition of “What’s up NGS?” First off, I wanted to highlight that we’ve had a few more big shout outs since our last update including one of our favorite writer/designers Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment, Pillars of Eternity), the founder of Larian Studios Swen Vincke (Divinity: Original Sin), and the Crowfall team in their latest newsletter! Woohoo! :D

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The Kickstarter campaign for the episodic dieselpunk RPG Project Resurgence had a good start:

Hey there Nectarines!

It’s update time, with Rob! Tomorrow marks our first full week of funding, and we are in pretty great shape. For those of you not as familiar with crowdfunding, the funding of a project typically follows a reverse bell curve, with really high numbers at the beginning and end and not very much in the middle. Following that pattern, any project that raises 10% in its first day will likely be funded.

That should make you guys as excited as it makes me, since we blew past that on day one! The numbers have been climbing steadily, and after a very generous $10k contribution yesterday, we’re now at $63k (39%) with 30 more days to go! From all the research I’ve done, I can tell you we are in a great position to finish out our first week.

If you’ve got questions or comments, we’d still love to hear them! Between myself, the NGS team, and our Ambassadors, we’ve been spending most of our time communicating with you guys. We really want to make a personal connection with you all, get your input, and make a game we know you’re going to love. Let us know what else you’d like to see in these updates, and what parts of the game and our development you’d like to go over in more detail.

The best ways to reach us are through the campaign comments, Reddit, Twitter, and our forums. I’ve been handling all the Twitter direct messages personally too. :)

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