Chris Taylor asks backers whether he should continue with Wildman Kickstarter

Following the news of layoffs at Gas Powered Games , studio head Chris Taylor has issued a video statement explaining the situation, in addition to asking backers whether he should continue with the Kickstarter campaign, considering everything that's happened in the last couple of days.

Confirming that a "substantial" part of the Gas Powered Games' team had been laid off, an emotional Taylor went on to explain why. He didn't want to "play a card game with their livelihoods," essentially, to gamble their jobs on a Kickstarter campaign that might not prove successful. Rather than risk having to shut the entire company down and let everyone go - with "no PTO, severance or anything", he decided to let certain people go now, which was a "very very tough decision" to take.

If the campaign makes enough money, Taylor aims to rehire the fired staff members, providing they haven't found other jobs. However, in the video he goes on to ask whether the Wildman Kickstarter should even continue, ultimately putting the decision in the hands of the backers. He's going to tabulate the comments on this update page (only backers can comment), which at the moment appears heavily swayed towards seeing the campaign continue.

What about you? Are you excited about Wildman, and do you think the Kickstarter should continue? Let us know in the comments, and (if you're a backer), be sure to let Chris know as well.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.