IncGamers has received an email from Bear Simulator press contact Britnie Farwick, which claims that the game is “very much alive” and suggests there will be an official update soon.
In actual fact we received two emails. A backer who’d requested a refund forwarded me the reply they had received from Ms Farwick, which has few additional details in it too.
Back in February we reported on a five (now almost six) month silence surrounding the Kickstarter for Bear Simulator, and the unrest among the project’s backers. There are still no direct updates on the project from the developer “David Farjay” (in quotes because I’m not sure that’s his real name.)
However, here’s what Britnie has to say in her email.
“Hello fellow bear fans. Sorry about the very long winter hibernation, the den has been taking a little longer to prepare than expected. We can assure you that Bear Simulator is very much still alive. The developer has been hard at work meticulously piecing the game together. The game has come a very long way, and we cannot wait to update everyone on that progress. We will have something magical put together in the next few weeks. So look forward to that! It will hopefully answer a lot of your questions and ease your mind about the overall status of this project.”
It appears from the backer comments page that a few others received this same email.
The additional email actually shortens the timeline even further and says a Bear Simulator update is coming “in the next week.” Here’s the text from that one, in reply to the refund request.
“Obviously, if that is what you would like. I will talk to the developer and have him deal with this. Honestly, I am just a middle man. I answer questions and relay information back to him. But i would like to remind you that there is only ONE person developing this game and that his ETA on when he would be able to finish was drastically wrong because he is a bit of a perfectionist.
I have personally seen the game and all the progress he has made on it and am thoroughly impressed. It looks freaking gorgeous. He has 8 working regions up and going and is currently trying to debug as much as possible. I know a lot of people are upset with him, but I truly do believe that the game is going to be fantastic.
This is the first game he has produced like this and it might take a bit of patience to be a benefactor of his amazing hard work. We plan on releasing an official update with game play videos and everything in the next week as well.”
Backers should probably hold off celebrating until that Kickstarter update actually happens, but the breaking of a five-to-six month silence over the project is hopefully a positive sign. It also at least appears that the team are open to doing refunds, if it comes to that.
