22 Cans Fails Curiosity Winner, Does Not Deliver Fame and Riches

It was never anything we covered at length, largely because I wasn’t part of the GamerzUnite family when it happened, but back when Peter Molyneux left Lionhead and established 22 Cans, I strongly suspected it would be a gigantic mistake. All respects to Mr. Molyneux, but his ability to set goals and make ambitious promises vastly out scales his ability to ever deliver on those promises or make anything resembling his original goal. Unfortunately, the very premise of 22 Cans—a ‘short-lived’ studio whose only purpose was to make a series of artistic games lining up with his vision—seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. And that disaster is finally unfolding in front of us.

Of course, I could have just as much thought it was a great idea and I’m retroactively changing my mind to make me look better. You’ll never know.

Anyway, to those who haven’t been following it, their latest game, Godus, which was funded by Kickstarter funds and fairy dust (presumably) isn’t going well at all. The team behind it has grown smaller, features are added and removed seemingly on a whim, the reviews are not great, and according to the core designer behind the game;

"To be brutally candid and realistic I simply can't see us delivering all the features promised on the kickstarter page, a lot of the multiplayer stuff is looking seriously shaky right now especially the persistent stuff like hubworld."

Now, if you remember Curiosity, the first 22 Cans game (which was actually pretty good), you’ll also recall that the whole ‘multiplayer being shaky’ thing is a big problem, as the winner of Curiosity was promised a spot of ‘ultimate godhood’ within Godus, which, you know, is kind of pointless if you’re still only playing single-player.

But that’s not the only way they let the winner, Bryan Henderson, down. In an interview with Eurogamer today, apparently the young man has long since given up on ever receiving the ‘wealth and fame’ Peter promised, due in no small part to a complete lack of communication between him and the developers. In fact, he rarely thinks about winning Curiosity at all anymore.

“Since I won and a year after, I would email them as a ritual thing, every month, just to get some kind of update. Eventually I was like, they're not being professional at all. Communication is non-existent, so I'm not even going to try any more."

The good news was that Bryan was never counting on the money, so it’s not as if he’s starving in the streets, but it still, in retrospect, turns the whole Curiosity Craze into a joke, and it certainly doesn’t help 22 Can’s reputation. But that’s the nature of the game, I suppose. Better luck next time, Peter.