Dev Says Former Partner Spent Investment Money on Booze
By John Jacques 26 January 2016
Former Ant Simulator developer Eric Tereshinski explains that he canceled development of the game because his business partners squandered his cash on booze and strippers.
Indie titles are a risky investment for everyone involved, and not every title which gets funded will cross the proverbial finish line. Eric Tereshinski knew this when he aspired to create Ant Simulator, which brought some fairly robust graphics to the table when compared to most indie titles. Unfortunately, after more than a year of development it looks like Ant Simulator will never see the light of day, since his business partners spent most of the investment cash on booze, food, and strippers.
Although many websites are stating that Eric’s former business partners spent the game’s Kickstarter funding on booze, the game was actually privately funded and he received pre-orders through his own system. Eric did make a Kickstarter to raise funds for “Ultimate Gamedev Tutorials” about a year ago, which actually hit its target and reached a relatively modest $4,000 goal and resulted in several videos being published to his own Tutorial account, where the cancellation video was eventually posted.
In a four minute video that Eric calls ‘The Worst Video He Has Ever Had To Make’, he announces the cancellation of the game and details how his business partners had spent the majority of the game’s investment money. Take a look for yourselves below:
Eric went on to say that his former coworkers had covered themselves quite well in the contract they had with him, and that he went over the contract line-by-line with them twice after everything came to the surface. His business partners were in the contract as consultants, which meant they didn’t actually have to do any of the work. More importantly, it also meant they could bill items as expenses from business meetings – even if those items were strippers, booze, and fine dining.
Tereshinski states that his business partners threatened to sue him if he attempted to release the game without them, so he simply canceled the game and is going to begin the process of refunding pre-orders for the title. His business partners had been his friends for around eleven years, and we imagine the lone developer is really feeling the sting of bad business right now.
The loss of any game that could have brought joy to gamers is always sad to hear about, and we here at Game Rant wish Eric the best in his future endeavors.
Source: YouTube
