They spent the money on booze and strippers

[snoopy]

I always say that if you really want to know someone then go into business with them

http://www.news.com.au/technology/home-entertainment/gaming/ant-simulator-programmer-forced-to-cancel-game-after-partners-blow-cash-on-booze-and-strippers/news-story/f9ebda0bc09246fccd5387945cf7e317#itm=newscomau|technology|nca-tech-plmnt-trending|1|section-technology-science-space|story|The%20CIA%E2%80%99s%20real-life%20X-Files&itmt=1454431219755#itm=newscomau|technology|right-now-in-|4|Ant%20Simulator%20game%20developers%20waste%20Kickstarter%20money%20on%20str...|story|The%20CIA%E2%80%99s%20real-life%20X-Files&itmt=1454431219756

Ant Simulator programmer forced to cancel game after partners blow cash on ‘booze and strippers‘

AN indie game developer has been forced to cancel a project after discovering his business partners had blown the budget on booze and strippers.

But what made this outrageous story even more scandalous was the fact the money spent had been donated by faithful contributors on global crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

Lead programmer Eric Tereshinski had hoped to create Ant Simulator, a game in which players manage a colony from the ant’s perspective, through the venture ETeeski.

He and his then-business partners were able to raise just under $4500 on Kickstarter to get the project up and running, with it supplemented by income from preorders of the game.

Everything was going as planned until Mr Tereshinski discovered his two business partners had allegedly been having a little too much fun with company’s bank balance.

“They had secretly spent the overwhelming majority of both our Kickstarter money and the Ant Simulator investment money on liquor, restaurants bars and even strippers,” he said in a YouTube video.

As Mr Tereshinski and his ex-business partners created a Limited Liability Company — a business where owners are not personally liable for the debts and liabilities of the LLC — he was left with no option but to resign and cancel development of the game.

The lead developer said because of the agreement, his former partners and childhood friends had informed him they were going to sue him if he released the game without them.

“I trusted them and they had been my friends for 11 years. That means that resigning, and therefore cancelling the development of Ant Simulator, is really the only option available to me right now,” he said.

When asked about sourcing legal advice in regards to the issue, Mr Tereshinski said it wouldn’t be worth his time or money.

“They went over the contract line by line with me and I reviewed the whole thing twice. I just didn’t realise they had protected themselves,” he wrote.

As part of the agreement, Mr Tereshinski is also legally obliged to remove any online assets created during his time with the LLC.

“It’s a setback, but it’s not the end,” he said. “I am very pissed off I lost money, lost over a year of work and lost a game I loved, was proud of and was really looking forward to releasing on Stream and PS4.”

Mr Tereshinski said he would email backers of the project to offer them refunds for their donations.

According to the company’s website, the partners in question were director of finance Tyler Monce and director of operations Devon Staley.

News.com.au has contacted them both for comment, but is yet to receive a reply.

[EEVblog]

I feel sorry for the backers of course, but you can't help laugh, booze'n'stippers 

[Kjelt]

Only $4500 for such a development is ridiculous, not even enough for two months of salary, so perhaps this was the best solution, get drunk, get over it, and start a realistic project or get a paid job.

[mdg82]

Haha, yeah you have to chuckle but they're a**holes nonetheless.

[miguelvp]

Of course there are two sides to that coin:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/02/01/ant-simulator-business-partners-respond-devs-claims-100-percent-bull.aspx


And already covered here

[Neilm]

They spent the money on booze and strippers...

the rest was wasted

[os40la]

Maybe they were doing research on possible add-ons to the game. In game purchases? Hmmmmm... Ant Simulator + booze + strippers. now that just might be some interesting game play.    Tell me you wouldn't be interested in playing a game like that. Sure beats tossing off your birds at  swines. 

[Richard Crowley]

Sure beats tossing off your birds at  swines. 

“... If you show it in a YouTube video, it looks fantastic. But if you play the game, there’s only three or four minutes of actual gameplay before you run out of things to do.”

They both seem extraordinarilly silly to me, but them I'm an adult with more productive things to do with my time, including my recreational time.

[station240]

“... If you show it in a YouTube video, it looks fantastic. But if you play the game, there’s only three or four minutes of actual gameplay before you run out of things to do.”

I think the business partners meant "only three or four minutes of actual gameplay before we got bored and went back to liquor, restaurants bars and strippers".

On his youtube video, Eric said in comments that he bought 3 passes to a Game Developer Conference, he attended all 5 days, his business partners attended 30 mins and 1 hour respectively.

[miguelvp]

“... If you show it in a YouTube video, it looks fantastic. But if you play the game, there’s only three or four minutes of actual gameplay before you run out of things to do.”

I think the business partners meant "only three or four minutes of actual gameplay before we got bored and went back to liquor, restaurants bars and strippers".

On his youtube video, Eric said in comments that he bought 3 passes to a Game Developer Conference, he attended all 5 days, his business partners attended 30 mins and 1 hour respectively.

That's understandable. They did the deal with Sony and they were done.  GDC other than contacting and doing deals with 1st party vendors doesn't have a lot of things for the business types.

E3 on the other hand is pretty much all business and not that much tech content. So if they did go to E3 then Eric could have been the one spending time at the restaurants, bars and strippers.

GDC has super short and sweet marketing meetings from 1st party vendors, since they are trying for you to adopt their platforms/tech, the rest (non vendors) of marketing peeps just get bored and go to the restaurant/bar/strippers

30 minutes and 1 hour for the marketing partners probably covered it all.

I do attribute the whole "fiasco" as a lack of experience/knowledge on how things work by all three of them.