Kickstarted In The Butt: A Chuck Tingle Digital Adventure was promoted as a collaboration between author Chuck Tingle and Zoe Quinn of Depression Quest fame. The project was pitched back in October of 2016, and was funded to the tune of $85,448.
According to the Kickstarter page the adventure dating simulator was supposed to be released in beta between February and April of 2017. When April rolled around there was still no pre-alpha access. Then May came, then June, and by July there was an update to backers informing them about why some of the merchandise was missing for the physical backer rewards.
By August, 2017 the pre-alpha trailer was revealed, and then there was nothing until January, 2018, where the project creator, Zoe Quinn, made an update on the project writing…
“[…] sorry for the lack of updates, the book tour and reworking Crash Override (the resource center) for our 2018 goals hit me harder than I’d anticipated, but ultimately I think it’ll be worth it because I’m actually really excited at the possibility for this game to get into the hands of people who didn’t know you could shake a butt around to cast magic and draw dicks and prove love is real with the handsome body of a living video game.”
Quinn had mentioned that she would be focusing on a mobile port of the game since majority of the people she wanted to target for the game don’t play on home consoles or PC.
After the January, 2018 update there was silence… a lot of it.
In fact, there were no further updates until a report on Kickscammed popped up, noting that the project hadn’t been delivered on its stated date and that the creators of the project had not responded to inquiries about its delivery date. When Chuck Tingle and Zoe Quinn were reached for comment by Kickscammed, they didn’t return any of the queries.
Fans began hounding down Chuck Tingle for answers about the game based on his work, especially since $85,000 worth of backer money was essentially being unaccounted for.
After repeatedly being asked where the $85,000 went, Tingle finally fired back in a tweet on August 30th, 2018, stating that he had nothing to do with the game.
what i said is I AM NOT MAKING A VIDEO GAME I HAVE NEVER BEEN MAKING A VIDEO GAME. I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THIS MONEY IS BECAUSE I AM NOT INVOLVED IN ANY WAY AND NEVER HAVE BEEN. i hope this is clear and anwsers your questions https://t.co/r3HZAtE10Z
— Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle) August 30, 2018
A couple of Twitter users pointed Chuck Tingle to the FAQ page on Kickstarter that clearly indicated that he was collaborating with Zoe Quinn on the project.
Chuck responded by saying that his participation in the project only went as far as talking to Quinn about using the tingleverse and that he wasn’t actively developing the game.
thank you as said in other replies this is was i have been saying whole time. i was asked about using TINGLEVERSE as setting and then sent messages about rules of tingleverse and then after that said ‘okay go make game have fun’ so yes this is what i have been saying whole time
— Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle) August 30, 2018
This, of course, still didn’t answer the question about where the money went.
Chuck Tingle was pressed for answers about the $85,000, with some accusing him of having scammed backers. Tingle responded by stating that according to the deal he signed, he wouldn’t receive any money until the project was released.
thank you as said before i did not make kickstarts or video game. i do not make big money until game is finished as part of deal to adapt this way. i have said many times but these things do not matter to you because you have agenda to tell story the way you want
— Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle) August 30, 2018
Backers were then forced to track down Zoe Quinn, who, on Twitter, finally gave an explanation as to what was happening with the project.
Kotaku In Action spotted Quinn’s statements, where she explained across multiple tweets…
“Tl;dr: still working on it, just slower because I ran out of money a long time ago and had to get day job(s). also I have been working on ways to bring on some assistance with finishing it. also don’t yell at Chuck about it – shipping the game is on me.
”I mean one of the reasons it’s taking longer than I expected too is that I kinda released a hugo nominated book and had a 4-month tour but sure, bots that scream at me daily, I’m just a lazy scammer.
“Whoever told me as a kid that if I wanted the same respect as a man I had to work twice as hard severely underestimated that amount. I had to do the math for this recently and might as well share the info because maybe that’ll illustrate my point – In the last 5 months, more than 1 months worth of that time was spent doing consecutive all-nighters. One of those nights was my birthday.
“So that thing where people think if you just work hard no one will care that you’re a marginalized person or a minority is total bullshit.
“’It’s also a super unhealthy relationship to have with your work and people shouldn’t do it’, I type from my room in Tokyo, too busy working on stuff to really enjoy being in a place I’ve always wanted to visit for the first time”
This wasn’t entirely satisfactory for the Kickstarter backers, so after eight months with no update, Quinn proceeded to make another update on the Kickstarter page for the backers only, apologizing for the delay.
There’s still no public release date, nor any publicly available information on when the alpha, beta, or (much less) the final version of the game will be available in some capacity. However, it appears as if even those within the Social Justice circles are starting to see their patience being worn thin by Tingle and Quinn.
I attempted to reach out to Zoe Quinn to ask about a potential release date for the game, or when the beta would be made available, but she has me blocked on Twitter.
(Thanks for the news tip Lyle)
