Barkley 2 Is 100 Percent a Failed Shot

Do you remember Barkley 2 (aka The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa), the Kickstarter-funded RPG sequel to Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden?

Tales of Game's Studios, who is behind this whole project, launched the Kickstarter campaign almost seven years ago (November 28, 2012), and managed to successfully raise $120,35 , a little over $85,000 more than their original goal. So, you would think that all is said and done, and the developers would be able to adhere to their original release date of late 2013/early 2014, right?

Oh, so, so wrong. There have been no signs of releasing since the end of the campaign. Well, it turns out we've finally learned that the game is officially 100 percent dead. According to the SomethingAwful forum, a former developer with the alias Hiratio posted (though it is courtesy of Josh Bossie, who managed to screenshot and tweet this):

"Chef vanished from the project 2 1/2 years ago. I've tried contacting him multiple times and haven't received a response. Bort left around the same time to be a family man.

The Kickstarter was not necessary, especially in hindsight. The majority of work on this game was unpaid. Myself, Bort, and Chef are the original Barkley 1 creators. I did not join the Kickstarter with them because I was aware of the many problems that could (and did) arise.

I was asked to join the project 3 years after the KS when the project had little money and was in shambles. I was committed to trying to finish the game but it was consistently set back by horrible management and I ended up quitting. The person who owns ToG and is running it now had nothing to do with Barkley 1 and has zero game dev experience. He is the ToG PR guy.

When I quit, Lazrool also quit. We were the only two remaining who understood the technical inner workings of this game. Laz worked on this project nearly from the start, pro bono, and was tired of the nonsense as well.

There is no incentive for 'ToG' or anyone attached to the KS to talk about this debacle."

As for other various issues that have occurred during the development timeframe:

• The turnover was incredibly high - so much so that the studio had a revolving door issue.
• The team was so split due to everyone attempting to bring to life their own vision for the game, creating further complications for development.
• Management and employees had the attention span of a "goldfish." Essentially, a large amount of work would be completed, only to have it halted due to some new, "cool" idea being proposed and worked on.
• Efficiency was largely lacking. The team was small, and there was an unwillingness to simplify areas.
• Management acting steadfast on how work should be done, despite the lack of understanding the work's process. This led to overly complex systems, as well as obsolete and broken systems.

Tales of Games has since posted a reply via Twitter:

"Greetings from established ToG villain, bhroom. Besides Barkley 2 dev being 100% dead, everything else you may have seen about the Great ToG Schism is pretty accurate. I owe everyone a long write up of the B2 SaGa. In the meantime, how should I address qs?"

It is unfortunate, but Kickstarter trainwrecks are not the most uncommon...

Either way, look forward to, hopefully, that long writeup.