Hey guys. We have some things to discuss, so here goes.
TL;DR: The game is not abandoned, progress will continue to be challenging, and you'll be hearing from us. Thanks for your patience.
This is clear to anyone that has been paying attention, but I will reiterate, because this is the first step towards taking responsibility: we have not made the progress on Dragon we would have liked to by this point in time, and development has been inconsistent.
The original vision for Dragon was, even by AAA standards, vast and complex, and implementing it has been difficult, all the way down to basic foundation of the game. In addition to this, Dragon was launched with a fledgling development team on a tight budget, and if we're being honest, we suffered from a streak of hubris on the outset.
You have undoubtedly heard this before by now - an Early Access team coming out to say, "Well, we tried our best, but our project was hard and we're sorry." In addition - we have let our forums grow cold and have updated inconsistently. At times it has been difficult to address you guys. Mea Culpa.
I know there are those of you who are accusing Dragon of taking your money and running. I understand your discontent - but I can emphatically say this is not the case. One thing that is certain - there are no plans to permanently cease development of Dragon. There is a fun game in here somewhere that we love dearly, and we have learned a lot about how to best suss it out.
Right now, there is still some uncertainty and slow going ahead of us - and at the moment, that cannot be helped. It's just the reality of this business. We are very short on guarantees for you, but one that I will make is this - we will never leave you in the dark again. For those of you rolling your eyes - that's fair. Wait and see, and I will do what I can.
Ultimately, I am writing you to say: I acknowledge that we have lost your trust. Allow us to earn it back, if we can.
In the short term:
1. Right now we are protecting the remaining funds we have set aside for this project, because we were not getting value out of spending them - and we won't be spending them until we know we will get a substantial return. There is still a skeleton crew at the helm who is working for free - this will continue for some time.
2. We are transitioning leadership of the project away from RLG, which is assuming the role of publisher, to Red Wyrm Studios, the team that formally owns the game. It will be mostly transparent to you, but it is a step we are taking to right the ship.
3. We are acting upon a renewed commitment to be responsive to the community on this page, on the forums, and on social media (in that order of priority.)
4. Potentially in the next patch or two, we are looking to roll back the game to a smoother, more stable, and hopefully more fun design. There may be a few interesting changes to discuss soon, but that is fodder for another post.
-Laersk, DtG Community Manager
ETA: I'll be cleaning up the forums as well...excuse the mess.