Dark Matter Publisher Claims It’s An “Episodic Series”

The CEO of Dark Matter publisher Iceberg Interactive says the game is, and was, meant to be the first part of an episodic series.

The 2D platformer Dark Matter recently came under fire when it was discovered that it screeches to a very sudden halt at around the four hour mark, ending the action with a wall of text – and without any kind of warning or actual conclusion. Developer InterWave Studios disputed the reported brevity, claiming that the YouTube “Let’s Play” in question rushed to reach the end, but acknowledged that “the full story is indeed not complete” because it ran out of money after a failed Kickstarter. Nonetheless, it insisted that “Dark Matter on Steam is a complete game in itself.”

Now, however, Iceberg Interactive CEO Erik Schreuder has waded into the fray and suggested that it is not in fact a complete game, and that the idea of making Dark Matter a series, “with episodes selling at a budget price of $14.99,” was made after its Kickstarter failed.

“The first instalment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter,” Schreuder wrote in a Steam forum post. “We would like to stress that the game is exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels) – it is simply not true that the game is unfinished, or unplayable. Some people have misquoted the developer as having admitted that the game is incomplete; we should reiterate that what was meant was that this is not the $30 full-priced game, but the episodic budget version.”

Schreuder apologized for the ending being “not of the standard we would expect,” and said the studio is working to come up with something “more conclusive and satisfying.” He did not address a time frame for (or even the likelihood of) future episodes, but said that follow-ups will be “dependent on the success of the previous installment.”

Source: Steam