Honesty is the best policy… even when the truth is actually pretty ugly.
According to lead programmer of Kickstarter alum Ant Simulator, Eric Tereshinski, the video game and some of his other projects were unfortunately not meant to be – especially since some of his teammates weren’t the most trustworthy people.
Tereshinski’s company ETeeski launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for not only the game but also for developer projects. While the initiative surpassed its initial $4,000 (a pretty small sum), ETeeski took pre-orders for the game on its own website.
Over the weekend, Eric revealed the news that he has resigned from ETeeski and Ant Simulator won’t be happening after all. According to Eric, his former business partners allegedly blew all of the money on liquor, bars, restaurants and strippers.
Some Ant Simulator fans asked Tereshinski if he had sought legal counsel about the situation and he answered:
“A lot of people are telling me to seek legal advice. I have. The problem is that these guys covered their asses in the contract. They’ll say the drinks were for business meetings, and they have the paperwork/minutes to prove they had meetings (even though I know they were bullshit meetings). They went over the contract line by line with me and I reviewed the whole thing twice. I just didn’t realize they had protected themselves, screwed me (like the fact that they listed themselves as consultants, so they aren’t legally obligated to work on anything, but still have the rights to spend money ect.), and I had no idea what their plan was until it was too late.
“I could try to sue them, yes. The problem is that the most likely outcome is that things will end up more or less the same as they are now. The only difference is that I would have wasted a lot of time and money on court and lawyer fees. Cutting ties with them is just faster, simpler, and safer. Besides, I’m really damn good at making games. I will make other games. They won’t.
“And thank you everyone tremendously for you support! It helps out so much to see everyone’s comments of support. I’ve been in a really dark place for over two months because of this, you all have really made a difference for me. I was afraid to go public with this information, but it’s really good to be able to talk with everyone here again.”
Tereshinski will continue to use his YouTube channel due to the fact that the channel was created before signing with his colleagues. Following the announcement, Eteeski removed the details of the game and Tereshinski’s tutorials from its website and now only has the bios of the company’s director of finance, Tyler Monce, and director of operations, Devon Staley.
Chalk this one up as another failed crowdfunding campaign with creators gone bad.
You can listen to the trip to the confessional below.
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