Chronicles of Elyria - Caspian No Longer Cares.

He's done with it all.
chroniclesofel...
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#chroniclesofelyria #kickstarter #2023

[@superscatboy]

What backers wanted: A game What backers got: The autobiographical diary of someone they thought was going to make a game

[@jameseast9229]

I'm half convinced he just likes attention at this point, good or bad.

[@lasskinn474]

"guises I was just scared to believe I can make a game and didn't know whyyy" while actual project is a technically and creatively really complex product that has very little to do with why and all about figuring out what and how. this is all "the secret" bullshit just wrapped up in a fancier wrapper.

[@iloveanothermanswives4278]

@@jameseast9229 He doesn't have any. Alot of people nolonger remember his project even existed.

[@doxologist]

Actually, they got book reviews

[@jackdaniel3135]

“The KoE Autobiography: How I Wasted Your Money and Why I Don’t Care”

[@thebunnybun]

I don't just "move my arm" peasant I engage my muscles individually and use tendons in tandom to create a forward motion with my hand.

[@trollscream8607]

😂😂😂

[@miketike3246]

To sum up Caspian's rambling...he didn't fail to deliver a playable game, he is simply still learning how to do it. Wow. Game coming any decade now.

[@sickoslater]

*century/millennium

[@htf5555]

hahhahaaa you know what, i fucking love this novella. detailed journey of a man’s acceptance of his true self :an unaccountable sociopathic conman

[@lightworker2956]

The "if you don't succeed, keep trying" idea is correct for some people in some circumstances. But there's other correct ideas too like "know your limits" and "have some self-awareness" and "take personal responsibility."

[@thorveim1174]

at this rate star citizen will be out of early access before the alpha of CoE XD

[@Leafwink]

At least he used his time to read a lot of books.

[@asteranx]

These diary entries have always been very revealing about who caspian actually is vs who he imagines himself to be. To me it reads like someone decided one day they're going to build a car and they're going to live-blog the process in order that other people can learn what it really takes to build a car. Then spend six months talking about the ideal arrangements of knobs on the dashboard, or what shape the side view mirrors are going to be, or how difficult it is to make the fog lights work. Earnestly presenting these as the real challenges of car manufacture and himself as a wise thing-understander who has chosen to pierce the veil and really simplify it for all the unenlightened out there. Then someone asks about the intake manifold, and he talks about the differences between leather and fabric trim, just before announcing that he's decided that the car will fly at a million miles an hour and never break down. "Why do they even make cars that break down?" he chuckles to himself. Then he makes a sled out of a trash can lid he found at his neighbor's house and says the updates are going to be about the sled for a while since he feels like it's an important step in the car-making process. The next update is about how the sled broke down.

[@viikable]

funniest thing I've read in a while apart from the actual blog post

[@JC-xh8xe]

Top tier post 😂

[@FalconRS]

I am waiting for his fanfic how met Hideo Kojima and John Romero the same day, and went to punk concert, after sex with five prostitutes they hired just to him as a gamer challenge.

[@robertmosley1188]

lol, fog of war lights do be difficult tho

[@lasskinn474]

yeah pretty much. reminds me of the guys who would just pitch software startup ideas talking about what it would do trying to attract someone to magically do the how - while the idea is just a bulk idea and the real work would have been in how it would actually work and even if it could work. like.. imagine you're living in the late 90s and you're working on a company funded way too much and you're an exec on drugs having orgies. you think that wouldn't it be cool if you could have a mmo golf game on the nokia 7710(first WAP phone, a pocket phone protocol for cut-down standard of web) and you could swing it to play it - and imagine genuinely thinking that you genuinely just did "work", then you go pitch that to the owners and the owners are like thumbs up and nobody fucking questions that it's actually impossible and a dumbass idea. dude was just ~15-20 years late to the bullshit party.

[@izasolecka5843]

He would be so much happier writing novels.

[@windy8544]

maybe but it wouldn't earn him 8 mils

[@egemenozan5641]

​@@windy8544I honestly believe he himself regrets the whole fundraiser at this point. Definitely has hurt himself along with the people who donated

[@dubioushumor9243]

And I’d be super happy to not read any of those novels.

[@liselotteline8596]

@@dubioushumor9243I hope he writes a novel in his development blog and Kira reads it.

[@_Jay_Maker_]

Except that takes effort, self-discipline and a knowledge of the craft and field - and you can't bilk people out of millions of dollars doing it. Unless you're L. Ron Hubbard or Joseph Smith.

[@ACameronUK]

“They claimed that all the development work…were all part of an elaborate hoax” …I don’t recall saying it was elaborate 🙄

[@snooganslestat2030]

Very good point!

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

😂

[@lightworker2956]

That's admittedly funny. On the other hand, this really does look like Caspian being an incompetent idiot who lacks self-awareness, rather than a hoax. It's unfortunate, but some people are stupid.

[@miketike3246]

Kira said it perfectly at the beginning. Who needs to know any of this? We all have personal struggles. He's supposed to be working on a playable MMO that people put their money into. That process started 10 years ago. As of today there is not a single second of playable game. Not one second. This is nothing but a personal journal about why nothing's been accomplished. And his goal is to not only make a massive MMO, but develop his OWN UNIQUE GAME ENGINE? Yeah, ok.

[@SvendleBerries]

All whilst trying to paint HIMSELF as the victim in all of this after essentially committing fraud.

[@Trafulgoth]

Yeah, a highschool student could have graduated, gone to college, gotten a degree, started a new project, and shipped an MMO in the time it's taken him to do nothing.

[@miketike3246]

​@@SvendleBerries Exactly!

[@miketike3246]

​@@Trafulgoth 100%!

[@lasskinn474]

nah man the goal is to figure out _why_ he should make a game engine. actually thinking about it now, I think he is a stoner, not the fun kind but the kind of who get grandiose ideas and think they're doing research when they're not doing anything of the sort.

[@cleanerben9636]

well credit where it's due, Elyria is certainly chronic

[@dougray30]

Between this and Earth II, there will always be content.

[@shararm]

Holy shit I forgot about earth II

[@mattpeters4700]

I forgot Earth II even exists.

[@dougray30]

@@mattpeters4700 did it ever really exist?

[@TheMarc477]

Wow hahah forgot about earth 2

[@silvercat18]

Earth 2 has been really quiet - i am impressed it still exists at this point, its hype died aeons ago.

[@Shamesticks]

we only hear from him every few months because that's how long it takes him to write these manifestos.

[@TheMarc477]

He spends more time writing his blog then actually making a game

[@LKLM138]

Never has been making a game.

[@solomani5959]

Seems like.

[@miketike3246]

THIS.

[@DieKao]

He's going full Yandere Dev. But even that asshole actually programmed more than him.

[@s0sa1ty]

Spoiler alert... The blog is the game

[@devmech]

Business owner here. I hired a friend. Ironically, he did the same thing Caspian is doing here, spent all day doing write-ups of what he was going to do, never did it. So we fired him. Sure, it sucked, there were some tears, but we remained friends. There's literally no excuse for putting this much effort into *not* doing what you have been paid to do.

[@RuSosan]

Saw some of that while working at an art museum. Completely effort-free and talentless "art", 10-page pretentious essay texts to "vicariously elaborate" what the "elucidating art" supposedly represents and how anyone who has any criticisms "just doesn't get it." And many entitled "artists" spinning absolute BS on the fly during exhibit lectures. Also had a graduate trainee I was supposed to train to film and edit video. Gave him a simple project (that would take me a day, tops), instructions for the equipment and music/video library for editing and an entire 5 day workweek for him to get it done. I ask him how's it going daily, he says it's going fine. Friday and presentation rolls around, he has nothing but a pointless, bloated and convoluted text document about his _plan for the project_ and a "training journal" he's typed out and color-coded for every day. He hadn't even touched the cameras, nor opened Premiere once. He had somehow found the time to watch through an entire season of GoT online though, and didn't even bother or know better to clear his browser history. 😂

[@devmech]

@@RuSosan These kind of people confuse me. Obviously that trainee had some faculties to fulfill tasks and some logical/rational thinking skills (color coding days, etc) as evidenced by what they actually produced. My friend was technologically capable bordering on brilliant. In a rare moment of execution he modified and recompiled a Linux file system because our task had grown beyond it. Saved a project. Caspian here has written a lengthy, somewhat cogent and reference-filled essay. This obviously takes some intelligence, skill, time and effort. So laziness/ineptitude doesn't fully cover this phenomenon. I think there's some kind of dysfunction under which they are unable (or unwilling) to align their capabilities with their goals. I feel sorry for them, tbh.

[@henryokeeffe5835]

@@RuSosan As an engineer who often works with students and recent graduates, I've seen this a lot. I think the reason is partly that they are used to putting in that little effort, and partly that in so many places the bar is low enough to get away with it. In other words, if everyone does very little, the managers see that as normal and how long things are supposed to take.

[@conor9966]

​@@RuSosanyour second story is why real and practical check-ins are required anytime someone is unproven at something. Yours is short term and sounds low importance but I've heard plenty of times it being much more. Because it's all well and good to blame them intirely with "anytime I asked they said it was fine" and "they never asked for help" and finding out later they were just slacking... but at the end of the day you're now the one with a 100+ hour project barely actually started and going to run overdue and the people you answer to probably won't let you place all of the blame. Even if you think it is totally reasonable for them to just do it: CYA

[@FalconRS]

He wanted to get the most for the least, that's legit goal.

[@AracheNerd]

ive worked in game development for a few years and ive met someone like caspian before. she was heading an indie project we were making and she would spend so many hours writing nonsense and doing excel spreadsheets, all while creating drama with other coworkers, talking herself up and writing similar manifestos about how she was glamorizing her involvement in other people's work. it's genuinely absurd. working with people like this is a death knell and it's giving me terrible deja vu to read his blog posts

[@AracheNerd]

kind of obsessed with how caspian makes 80% of his blog post be about the books he read. the woman i worked with did something similar; spent all her time making powerpoints on useless bullshit like picking a random assortment of colors we could pick from for texture work (which is absurd, this is what we have concept artists for... why does my boss feel the need to give me 15 shades of yellow?) she's also spend literally hours of her workday doing nothing. meetings were useless with her because she would detail all the nothing work she did and then refuse to clarify or help the work of everyone else. she started doing UI work, unprompted, to add things to our game while we were literally in the process of doing the final builds. anyways im pretty sure there's a special place in hell for awful managers like her and caspian

[@OriginalItsFly]

We have a game designer and project manager like that as well. We ended up having to design stuff on the fly with minimal input from the two key members who's supposed to get the project to a presentable state. Obviously when it was presented to higher ups the numerous power points were key to "getting the team motivated to meet the deadlines." It's insane how this behavior is pretty common in the games industry.

[@gatojato3074]

Worked with people like that as well, this kind of planing usually hurts more than it helps. Sometimes you just need to... You know, start developing

[@IchbinX]

@@AracheNerd These ppl lack self reflection. It's why they look to others for inspiration. They look for a window, instead of a mirror.

[@M0gM00gle]

You just described literally every single Corporate middle manager. This is because they are literally paid to EXPLAIN how they are helping the company to the higher ups, while simultaneously not ACTUALLY helping the company at all. And most of the time they get these little pet projects of theirs they've talked up to the corpo office that literally make the job worse in every way but you NEED to do them because THEIR paycheck is based on it "succeeding" so even in failure they will somehow make it a win for them. Then that change will stay because they explained how helpful it was, and they move on to the next "great idea".

[@OrderOTCB]

So essentially… instead of the guy admitting he was wayyy over his head, made promises he couldn’t keep, he made mistakes and ruined his chances of repairing the situation… he went on a philosophical tangent on how he decided to not call any of his actions a failing in his part (which,,, wouldn’t the better lesson be that yes he failed, but he could try to make some form of amends) and decided that he would stop caring about how his actions had hurt others. Did this man even say sorry.

[@onomatopoeia7505]

Nope. Admitting fault starts with self reflection but Caspian has no mirrors around him.

[@lightworker2956]

He didn't, but on the other hand, it legally wouldn't be smart for him to say sorry. Yes, the legal system is messed up.

[@JustMe99999]

For 8 million dollars, he could have bought Atavism (MMO engine that already has the major systems built), Unity, and paid a bunch of people to create 3D models for him and would have a game already. Maybe not a good game, but he could have released something playable. That's about all you could do with such a small budget for an MMO.

[@stuartmorley6894]

Why it needed its own engine when lots of decent ones could be used off the shelf is bizarre. It's setting yourself an utterly unreasonable goal from day one. That's, what, a year or two at the beginning before even starting to make a game.

[@henryokeeffe5835]

@@stuartmorley6894 And from one developer it's literally impossible; by the time it's done it's 10+ years out of date.

[@JustMe99999]

@@molochz You should see what has been created with Atavism by small teams. It's definitely possible. Not saying he would have been able to create something at the scope he wanted to create, but someone with some sense (maybe not this guy) could create a halfway decent MMO with $8mil and a pre-built engine. Most of what you'd spend would be on the 3D models and world building since you get all of the major systems with the engine (grouping, instances, auction house, guild system, etc etc)

[@StarContract]

I'd honestly take the current L + the Kira uploads

[@rasmie8858]

Caspian really wrote his own villain origin story lmao

[@StarContract]

Kek

[@jcnot9712]

This is the longest “the dog ate my homework” scenario in human history.

[@Nick-zm2vm]

"No one is recognizing our hard work" Well, you haven't shown us anything other than a little parkour demo soooo...

[@liselotteline8596]

I believe he's so incompetent, that simple task are hard work for him. And when he gets something basic done, he thinks it’s a huge accomplishment. He just fails to see or can’t admit that all his work is basically nothing. And that other people are more competent than him. To him figuring out the basics and learning how to use the tools is hard work.

[@everythingpony]

You make a little parkour demo in 60 years! It's not that easy!

[@AquaCoalaNest]

"Thankfully to people I could live my dream, but I've fd up, I heartfully apologize. Now here are all the data about our work and finances."

[@medea27]

Caspian is the Yandere Dev of MMOs... so caught up in his own ego that he'll take great pains to explain _ad nauseam_ how nothing is his fault. This is just a _slightly_ more eloquent version of _"I'm wasting all my time responding to complaint emails instead of finishing my game, so stop sending me complaint emails!"_

[@NickyBlue99]

At least yandere dev made a game.

[@RuSosan]

@@NickyBlue99 Holy shit, Caspian was _actually_ outdone by YanDev. 👏🤣

[@lightworker2956]

I think this is actually unfair to yandere dev, because yandere dev made a game while we haven't seen a second of gameplay from Caspian. It's hard for me to believe that I'm defending yandere dev.

[@moosenman]

You know. While the game he made is spaghetti code and causes my computer to tell me to stop playing or I won’t have a computer anymore. There’s… *a* game

[@theavenger2378]

So glad Caspian came down from his monk's monastary to impart his wisdom on the game making process. I'm sure those who paid for his learning experience over the last decade is grateful. Seriously though, this is a huge document to tell everyone he (apparently) no longer cares about the 'unjustified' criticism.

[@syndrathedarksovereign1609]

One thing that's puzzling me is how he just refuses to admit he fucked up, he'd get way less flak if he just admitted he fucked up and just be more transparent. It honestly doesn't seem like a scam and more like things massively went wrong

[@This-Was-Sparta]

Right? Anyone that seriously thinks they can spearhead an mmo alone and without any prior experience shouldn't be trusted with any amount of money to begin with, but I can at least admire the ambition. There comes a point however where that kind of blind, stubborn insistence just becomes impossible to justify/understand. The time where it made sense for this guy to own up was like 7 years ago, lol. But hey, it's a good cautionary tale, at the very least. That tale being: "Don't make your first project as a budding game dev an MMO, you thick prick." 😂

[@samgoff5289]

He wasted 10 years and 8 million dollars without even an alpha or any other proof they were actually working to make a game that is a scam not simply making a mistake

[@conor9966]

@syndrathedarksovereign1609 even if you give the benefit of the doubt that maybe he had reasonable cause to think he could do it at the start, there is simply no way to run out of that much money while accomplishing so little without seeing much much earlier earlier that the goal will not be reachable. I would call this one of the situations where Kira points out the difference between "was not a scam" and "was not a scam initially/ didn't set out to be scam"

[@StreakyBaconMan]

I feel like he just got himself in a position where he was trapped. He promised something he couldn't deliver though I am sure he THOUGHT he could, got funds for it, failed to make his project a reality and spent all the money meaning he can't refund anybody and is basically stuck trying to make a game he doesn't have the ability to make, or even the funds to make anymore. I am sure the guy is massively depressed - his life has became basically trying to keep angry people who want their money back at bay because he can't refund them by making them think he's working on a game that he now knows he can't ever complete. He's probably constantly worried he's going to be sued for money he doesn't have too. His life is going to remain miserable and stressful until he decides to finally admit he doesn't have the ability to make this game a reality and just accepts the fallout that not releasing the game will have.

[@mrwizard5012]

​​@@This-Was-SpartaSee his mistake is that he tried to do this with traditional money. If he made vaporware with NFTs and blockchain hed be a multi-millionaire rugpuller right now. lmao

[@TheLobstersoup]

Caspian is simply the best at making no game at all. What happened to his other passion project and the fog of war?

[@rasmie8858]

What do you think he's been doing, he's been obscuring public views like a functioning fog of war

[@bellissimo4520]

It's now turning into a fog of mind.

[@StoutShako]

NO, PLEASE... SPARE OUR BABY BOY THE HORRORS!!! The fog of war is too nebulous to be tamed!!! 😭😭😭

[@modestgrower2017]

I imagined reading this in a field filled with fog in early morning just as the fall colors hit the trees

[@TheLobstersoup]

The fog of war in his own life definitely hasn't lifted. Doesn't he realize the only way to redeem himself is to release the game? There is no other way and no amount of words can change that. But that would take more work, right? Would have taken work...it's a little late, now. And the guy is still clowning around, so he'll never understand what all this philosophy was trying to teach him: Word's are cheap, act upon your promises. Fight for them, instead of making excuses and blaming others. I doubt this guy ever really learned to work alone or with others. Everything I've seen was cobbled together and even his writing is highly inefficient. The guy can't do anything right, except taking your money.

[@Cardali]

Ahh it's been a while. Time to pour a little rum and sit by the campfire and learn of the latest from the far of land of Elyria.

[@bellissimo4520]

Darn it... why is the rum gone??

[@Stepatee]

Aye...tall tales still come from the land that nought hath seen...

[@SawgrassDelta]

What a lengthy and detailed excuse Caspian has written.

[@ApacheSmash]

I love how the Chronicles of Elyria jokes on your videos have developed and grown more than the game

[@Queldonus]

Caspian has outmaneuvered everyone by deciding that failure doesn’t exist, therefore he can keep working on his game forever and not give a fuck. Meanwhile in reality, I have to ask how he’s paying his bills if he’s working in the game as full time.

[@Kamau1865]

He bought a new, bigger house early on and then paid off the mortgage within 3 months. Nothing dodgy at all. Would love to see the "forensic accounting".

[@Kamau1865]

He may not be guilty in the legal sense of outright fraud. But his lack of candour and transparency at least suggests Caspian behaved unethically. Innocent people don't obfuscate and misdirect. If the third-party forensic accounting demonstrated legally sound and ethically upright business standards and practises he would have released it. That is the whole point of third party forensic accounting. What I presume those forensic accounts show is a large salary, diverted funds, insider payments, incredible waste, mismanagement and staggering incompetence. 8 million dollars, a team of 20 people (at one stage) and 5 years of development produced absolutely nothing tangible, only conceptual. The whole thing stinks and I feel like Caspian needs to have an honest conversation with himself first and foremost. This level of self-delusion is deeply unhealthy and problematic. Although I must say I'm completely against him being harassed and threatened. We all make mistakes and no one deserves that. But when you take people's money to make a product you have a moral responsibility to show how you spent that money. Especially when the project and product never seemingly got past the conceptual stage.

[@jessaminehaak8253]

This whole thing was surprisingly interesting, although I'm glad you continually pointed out the whole way through the way that he's obfuscating the obvious mistakes he made and not mentioning things like how he never released the forensic accounting stuff to prove his innocence.

[@jimbolambo103]

This "failure is a good thing because it's how you learn to succeed" idea is true and great. The problem here is that he didn't bother learning how to succeed and instead writes 10,000 word blogposts about what success would be like. Even if you'd never heard of this saga before and just read this blogpost cold, you'd know from reading it that nothing worthwhile would ever come of this project.

[@KSignalEingang]

The old saw applies: there's a big difference between a person with 10 years' experience, and a person who's had one year of experience, ten times.

[@jerrykim7777]

Nevertheless at least I got some potential book recs from it

[@jubb1984]

I swear, if this never ending story dosent make it as a script for a game, i will make a game about crowdfunded games. Its gonna be a multiplayer experience for massive audiences, stay tuned for a kickstarter campaign!

[@snooganslestat2030]

Not interested.....unless you're going to provide a painfully detailed dev blog!

[@pegcity4eva]

I think you should crowd fund a Manga about it

[@jubb1984]

@@snooganslestat2030 I think that deserves to be a funding goal. At 1 mil, i will provide my lifestory in excruciating detail, leaving out the incriminating parts. 2 mil, ill add obfuscating detail Etc. It will be great!

[@jubb1984]

@@pegcity4eva I mean at that point i could make it a furry manga, no?

[@jackalo34]

This needs more thumbs up. Let's get this funded. Lol!

[@zixserro1]

"Knowledge is understanding how to do a thing. Experience is understanding how not to do it" is one of the most "I am 14 and this is deep" sentences I've heard in a minute.

[@a_very_tired_gamedev2725]

The time he took to write that, he could've finished Elyria and started on Elyria 2

[@user-mq5tu8eb3p]

Maybe Elyria and Elyria 2 can be bundled with Half-Life 3 and 4

[@SvendleBerries]

"Yeah, I know you all gave me 6.5 million dollars to make this game you were excited about, but let me take some time to talk to you about some books Ive read during development!"

[@everythingpony]

So we shouldn't care about your mental health and just watch you jump?

[@Kamau1865]

I think what he's written is actually quite sociopathic. He lived off the money people gave him to make a video game. He was not only in a comfortable but also a privileged position doing what many of us would consider an incredible opportunity to work on a dream project with sufficient resources to deliver. He can delete the word 'failure' from his vocabulary all he likes. But to take 8 million dollars, a team of people and 5 years of time and deliver absolutely nothing is a spectacular failure. Instead of being contrite he's talking about his undergraduate degree in Psychology. Instead of being humble he's comparing himself to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Marcus Aurelius. Instead of transparency he's chosen obstinacy. 90% of this update is just pseudo intellectual drivel. The other 10% is him inadvertently disclosing horrendous mismanagement and incompotence that really disqualify him from ever having such lofty ambitions, let alone that privileged position, again. The whole update is just dripping in delusions of grandeur with the faint hint of self-pity of an extremely privileged man who mistakenly believes he has been persecuted for his unconventional genius.

[@mkaleborn]

Well summarized character study. I don’t know if he meets the standards for sociopathy or NPD, or maybe something on the autistic spectrum or what-have-you. But from what others have described of similar bosses or project leaders, there is a personality type that seems very big on ideas (and obsessive focus on minutae), but are psychologically/emotionally incapable in translating that in to productive output. That entire info dump of personal musings seems like par for the course from this guy. A lot of ideas and chatter, but no meaningful plan on how to deliver on anything. Probably lots of people like this drifting through various industries. But Caspian chose to enter in to the public sphere riding an $8 million dollar chariot full of ‘best intentions’ and no ability or training to follow through. And he had the misfortune of doing it on Kira’s watch…. Much to our entertainment (or horror if you were part of that $8 million dollar boondoggle). An interesting slice of video game infamy to add to a sadly large sample size.

[@bigbananabill]

he's definitely at least a narcissist not sure if its sociopathy, but definitely narcissism to some degree, and possibly more.

[@NeonValleys]

Here's the truth, he never had the resources to deliver. Anyone who is even slightly aware of what it takes to make a game, and how that compares to making an MMO specifically, not to mention what he was promising, knew this. 8 million dollars will not make any MMO even slightly worth playing. And that's if you give it to the best developers in the world. Give it to some random guy and you're asking to be spit on.

[@MorbidEel]

Seems like he put that degree to great use manipulating people. Great for him at least.

[@stephen8342]

His lack of self awareness was apparent from the start looking back now. He straight up acted like he’s some industry pro

[@devak45167]

I mean FRFR, Caspian is clinically insane, no? I mean who is he writing this endless nonsense for? He’s probably like I have to go to an investor meeting today but it’s just him reading these absurdly long nonsense rants to his stuffed animals on his bed. Dude has lost the plot

[@dracoknight9066]

Not insane, but definitely seems like psychological disorder. He reminds me of when my anxiety disorder overloaded me so I dropped out of uni and spent 4+months pretending I am going to Uni before my family got me help. He's very similar. to me. He's essentially pretending he's running a company making an mmo. Just on much larger scale than I ever did. I seriously hope his family is aware of what he's doing and have a way out in case he spirals into debt.

[@speed0spank]

At this point I think these blog posts are letters to Kira

[@AdamOwenBrowning]

@@dracoknight9066 You've got a big heart and the strength of self-reflection to say those things about yourself and see them in others. I meet so many people in life who aren't taking charge of their future and making something, they are roleplaying it and pretending it. Only, this man here is doing that with millions of dollars

[@m.ccheddarbox874]

50 minute video?!? This just made my day much better! Nothing makes the time go by faster than Kira talking shit.

[@Eleanor_Ch]

I am not sure if this is supportive, or a criticism.

[@Stepatee]

​@@Eleanor_Ch....SMH...it's humor.

[@Eleanor_Ch]

​@@Stepatee I am well aware. Would it be more obvious that I didn't mean it seriously if I used an Emoji? Do people still use those?

[@eightlights4939]

Making time go faster is not a good thing

[@BeardRubEnjoyer]

Bro, I dont know why this is so fascinating. Something about the ego on display. But I can't deny excitement when I see Earth 2 or Elyria.

[@Prawnsly]

It's always amusing when a middle-aged man FINALLY has a little dip in the philosophy/human psychology pool and runs around shouting "Look at this marvelous thing I've discovered!". Good work Caspian, you've finally taught yourself the barest minimum self-awareness. Better late than never, I guess

[@ulch11]

I know, right? I've read Aurelius in my early twenties. And while there are some excellent things in his works, and certain aspects I have definitely tried to follow and integrate into my life, it's really not this earth shattering realization or anything. Just a book filled with some decent advice, and a lot of stuff that's just downright harmful or unworkable today. But somehow people like Caspian read it halfway through their lives and pretend like "don't let any small thing bother you" is somehow the most profound piece of philosophical teaching ever. And not just something you should have learned as a teenager.

[@Prawnsly]

@@ulch11 Yeah, and of course it would be "modern stoicism" that a terminally-online chronically unaware "man" (read: boy) like Caspian gravitates toward. It's like he's actively trying to make satire of his own existence. Do all these emotionally immature men read from the same script book or something? I'm surprised we didn't hear him say "It is what it is", that would've been the cherry on top.

[@anxietyfox4322]

I have a rather autistic best friend who is exactly like this. He will endlessly "discover" all sorts of philosophers, quotes, aphorisms, writers and thinkers and tell you all about this wonderful new discovery.. that he read in a book someone else wrote. He almost acts like he discovered it, and if you don't feel like listening to a 45 minute rant about Marcus Aurelius, he seems to think you're just simply too dumb to understand and appreciate his wisdom, he becomes visibly uncomfortable and annoyed. It gets really annoying when you're the one who originally told him to read the book about 10 years ago. It's like he's incapable of understanding that other people can and have found out about these same things he's raving about before him. No understanding that I might know the idea he's just discovered from someone elses book and I just disagree with it, and that's why I don't need a lecture from him. Either you praise him for his borrowed wisdom, or you're a jerk who just doesn't get it. Needless to say, it's very tiring interacting with him sometimes.

[@yossarian00]

@@anxietyfox4322 well at least he's autistic. what's caspian got as an excuse lol

[@atomixfang]

He should have kickstarted a book, not a game. That is something he would have probably finished.

[@snooganslestat2030]

Unless he instead wrote a diary of all the ideas he had for a plot & how to structure the story in agonising detail whilst occasionally releasing chapter titles?

[@Cyromantik]

A "Choose Your Own Adventure" knock-off would have been a good start...

[@freakishuproar1168]

0:03 Everyone always asks "When" Caspian, nobody ever seems to ask "Why" Caspian. I love how so many of his blog posts are essentially just him being like "hey guys, look at my random screenshots from my development software, look at all these PC towers!". And we're all just expected to say anything other than Yes. Yes Caspian. That is certainly some photos of of your PC screen and your many towers. That's lovely. I don't suppose you'll be releasing a, oh I don't know, _AN ACTUAL GAME_ at some point? The audacity of writing an essay advising folks how to go about starting a business... xD You'd need to start one first Caspian.

[@justinwhite2725]

"How" Caspian.

[@dezmodium]

Okay, so the stoicism part was meant to make himself look good but it does the opposite. I consider myself a stoic, having read Marcus Aurelius and Epictitus (I recommend both). Why this is so damning is that if he is following stoicism then he would be doing everything he could do to make thia game. He would come clean and expose his failures with inside data. The stoic says to his critic, "if only you knew the half of my flaws you'd have so much more to say." The stoic does not pay his critics much mind because he knows that the fruits of his labors and his honest dealings with others will speak more than any defense he can muster for himself. So, if he hasn't been pushing out a game, what has he been doing? Trying to convince people hes a good person and enriching himself. These have been the core focus of his efforts because these are his true pursuits. By telling you of his stoicism, his fraud is laid bare.

[@oliver_twistor]

I don't know very much about stoicism, but even I felt that what Caspian is doing doesn't feel like stoicism. He seems to not have understood for example the prayer he quoted. The purpose of accepting things one cannot change is to focus on the things that one can change, and then go do it. Not write lenghty excuses why one can't. He also seems to virtue signal a lot, and painting himself as a victim. If someone feels the need to tell people how good of a person they are, they probably aren't, and they try to convince themselves that they are.

[@LupinTelegar]

Yep, it's like how an actual self-aware person doesn't announce to others they are a self-aware person.

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

The heart of all art is that the best response to early criticism is a great finished work. Doubts about your abilities and your output are silenced best and fastest by finishing your project, and making it exactly as good as you said. In my own creative field the best feeling as a critic is when a project you doubted comes out and proves you completely wrong.

[@DavidJCobb]

sounds spot on imo in his mind, he's a great man _a priori,_ and if he tells us enough about all his great ideas, his great vision, then he can convince us to recognize the greatness he feels he has by default he will never honestly confront the need to actually _build_ these ideas in order for them to be worth anything

[@dezmodium]

@@oliver_twistor True but this is what I'm saying. He HAS focused on what he can control in his mind: his public perception. He has given up on what he cannot control: making a game. I also think that he has completely misunderstood his quote. It isn't meant to say that your obstacles must be tackled head-on as he seems to think it does. It means that the obstacle is the most important thing to focus on because it is what will prevent you from completing your goal. You can find ways around it. You can ask others to help you overcome it. Whatever. It just means you can't "cross that bridge when you get to it" because you WILL get to it so you might as well start tackling it now. Don't procrastinate. Marcus Aurelius has a bunch of stuff like that. About how it's pointless to worry about the problems of tomorrow when there is barely enough time today to start tackling them. Also, Aurelius is very against the idea of "not giving a fuck" in the general sense. He gives loads. His meditations are about what and what not to give a fuck about.

[@devak45167]

Man I got a lot to do today, gonna be a busy afternoon… *Kira drops a Caspian video* “Cancel everything, I’m leaving early!!”

[@adrianatkins10]

This man wrote a 60 page essay when people asked for their paid game. Speechless

[@PsyrenXY]

He's literally Caspian because this game is lost in Narnia

[@aelarion827]

The single sentence describing him allowing the engine to move to Node/TS says more than the 5 million word essay to anyone who has had any performance-critical dev experience.

[@oliver_twistor]

I agree. I have never even heard about using Typescript for a non-trivial game. Sounds bizarre.

[@SabreDartStudios]

Exactly! As a game developer, as soon as I saw that line about Node.js/TS, I knew exactly what happened.

[@2thezaza]

What happened?

[@DavidJCobb]

at 40:22 if anyone's curious, though that timestamp skips a bunch of rambling about management apparently it was his team lead's idea, not his own, but he drops this bombshell after talking about how rigorously he vetted his employees

[@manuelsilva3754]

sooo.... elyria is gonna be a browser game?

[@miketike3246]

Ok, so this is a glimpse into very complex pathological personality disorder. Keep in mind that all of this massive journal keeping of his personal life and struggles is supposed to be the progress of an MMO'S DEVELOPMENT. All this guy has really done with money and time is to dream out loud about what he would want his ideal MMO to be like. THAT'S IT. It's a JOURNAL. Where is the gameplay? Even a gameplay demo? Or even screenshots from the actual game? The Alpha? A combat demo? A gathering resources demo? There is nothing. To this day there is not a single second of actual playable game. And yet he envisions, with no money, virtually no staff, that he's going to create an immersive, evolving world on a scale that rivals or even surpasses The Elder Scrolls Online, or New World, etc? Where your character not only can interact with the world, but also grows old over time and watches things actually change around him? Those games had billions of dollars of investment, hundreds of people working on them, and those MMO's are considered ok but not great. At what point do we step back and realize that this man suffers from not only depression as he admitted, but also a serious delusional, perhaps sociopathic disorder. One in which he absolutely loves being able to write pages and pages about what's going on in his head and then pass it off as "developer notes" and "developer progress updates." WHAT development? WHAT updates? There's NOTHING.

[@TaoScribble]

Unfortunately, you can't force someone to get the help they desperately need unless they want it. And he's never gonna want it.

[@ulch11]

Well, he has spent a considerable amount of time on writing his autobiography over the years. You have to admire this mans commitment to not making a video game.

[@hornachos]

Great comment

[@onomatopoeia7505]

This. This "man" has spent more than five years doing nothing on what he wanted to create, and wrote a blog about doing nothing. FIVE. YEARS.

[@PointsofData]

This is not sociopathy...anti social personality disorder, which is what sociopathy and psychopathy are now grouped under, requires defiance of the law/authority. Not just lack of respect for fellow human beings. He has SOMETHING, clearly, but let's not group everyone who doesn't care about their fellow humans into "sociopath"...many disorders can cause that on lesser levels.

[@dubioushumor9243]

He punctuated that section wrong, it should be: “No, more failure”

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

Hey guys, it's time for a new devblog, t his quarter I will tell you what books I read!

[@abababababab1041]

It's actually commendable how committed he is to his scam. Most would have just found a way to disappear by now.

[@FoxeyeValkyrie]

It's not a scam, he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing and is in denial about it.

[@NorthStarBlue1]

Seems like he's just feeding off the attention at this point, since he's got a semi-captive audience of people who are still under the belief that they're going to get this thing that they threw money at ages ago.

[@lightworker2956]

You're right, if this was a scam he would have just taken the money and disappeared. Hence this is not a scam. Caspian is just an idiot with no self-awareness.

[@Attilat]

At this point in time, it's better for him to start selling a story of a failed developer so people can learn from him. Remove the graphics, remove gameplay, name it "Chronicles of a failed developer" and this whole venture becomes legit

[@anxietyfox4322]

It would actually have been pretty cool if the whole game was turned into a text adventure with ASCII graphics called Chronicles of A Failed Developer and it's all about starting off with a huge amount of money and spending it as rapidly as possible. I think that might have been enough to redeem this whole project.

[@Yolkiooo]

Next Dev Log: That idea I had in the shower

[@MechMK1]

His talking about "leadership" mirrors my experiences too with some project leaders. They make incredibly bad decisions out of a lack of understanding, then suddenly feel the need to show they are "the boss", make an arbitrary decision that hurts everyone and stick to it. The actually competent people leave, and everyone is angry.

[@tribes2archivist]

wait, there are project leaders who don't do that? pull the other one, it has bells on

[@byst33]

The real Chronicles of Elyria is the friends we made along the way

[@ArielTwain]

*Star Wars meme* Us: Another Caspian video Kira? Really? Man of your talents? Kira: It's a peaceful life

[@nickh4354]

Humor

[@Cygnus-Phi]

He's trying very hard to convince some rando boomer judge that he's done his due diligence.

[@christaylor7079]

Caspian’s the best sort of villain: the ones who have absolutely no idea that they’re doing anything wrong

[@shadowcaptaincain]

All those books Caspian read, it seems like he omitted a key, very important book: How to Make a Game.

[@section7173]

Caspian seems like the type of person who would use their wife and kids as human shields while he pees his pants cowering behind them.

[@loverschoice885]

and reading a selfhelp book

[@rasmie8858]

He's the type to use them as a shield and come up with convoluted excuses as to why it's not his fault

[@jameseast9229]

He 100% would.

[@TheZealo]

Then write a blog about in detail

[@DeimosXVX]

A man who enjoys making spreadsheets about features of his game than making said features for his game.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

He really shouldve just done that and hired actual people who actually know what theyre doing. And then they could take features that work, impliment them and chuck the ones that dont work. But something tells me thats too logical for Caspian

[@awb2498]

Keeping up withj the Caspians is back! I've missed it.

[@CplBaker]

His mental and personal problems are his and have nothing to do with him not providing what he promised. It's not an excuse for me or for anyone else when you accept the responsibility of a job you chose to do. We all have personal problems but you don't bring them to work and definitely don't use them as an excuse for failing a project.

[@speed0spank]

Hmm. I guess Caspian does strike me as the kind of guy to read bittom of the barrel self help books written for rich guys by ghost writers and think its deep af.

[@jackdaniel3135]

Shout out to all the people who paid for this dude to read a bunch of books and go on a personal life journey. Who would’ve thought that crowd funding could lead to throwing millions at a mentally ill person who has no clue what to do with it?

[@ulch11]

Honestly, I would like for people to give me 8 million to, idk, read some books or something. And I think if I started a Kickstarter for that expressed purpose I might just make some cash. At least I would be honest about what the money is for. Me being a lazy POS

[@TheCollos1]

The real Chronicles of Elyria is the kira playlist on the "games" development

[@TheGrimGary]

It’s all very simple and needed no techno babble. All he needed to to, ever…; was show what he accomplished in 4 years with all that money before he shut it down. In the last two months of working on my own game, I have showed every step of development for $0. Caspian is the singular most incompetent’developer’ and fragile man I have seen play the development game.

[@tutunaku]

at this point chronicles of elyria's final product will be a documentary

[@RuSosan]

It's kinda uncannily familiar to see how Caspian uses tech babble to obfuscate and to pretend he's still doing something and making progress. 🤔 CIG do a lot of the same kind of techbabble BS regarding Star Citizen. It's pretty much all Citizencon is nowadays beyond the vapid community spotlights, new ship jpeg releases and pre-rendered hype trailers.

[@baronfel124]

...does Capian not realize that failing a class is a thing? Like that's what the "F" grade stood for.

[@DemonicAkumi]

He seems the type that think F stands for Fantastic.

[@knessing7681]

still crossing my fingers that you will get your Caspian (live or not) interview with you. Now that would be epic.

[@sickoslater]

I would pay 8 million dollars for that

[@richardbritten492]

That is a lot of words from Caspian that amounts to “I have absolutely no idea what I am doing”

[@jameseast9229]

Don't steal from people if you don't want to have massive scrutiny on every aspect of your life.

[@A_Eichler]

So basically; Self absorbed person is handed a commercial/creative opportunity, talks a big game, does bugger-all, squanders time, then becomes an endless excuse-fountain of personal problems 'unique to them'. We all know one. Keep them out of your life.

[@kevinizatt4358]

He learned so much only to not go the last bit and own up.

[@FallingForgiveness]

It's been to long since I heard about this masterpiece, spectacular as always.

[@n00f]

I love the book stories. I'm sure he goes around now, quoting them to people he talks to all day, every day, like a precocious toddler learning about a brand new color.

[@McMillanTAC]

That's a classic conman's pity plea: - "think about my family, especially kids, they are sad/in danger" - "I was depressed, thinking about alt+F4" - "People who are rightfully angry with me are mean, pls stop" - personal details that serve no purpose other than making the post longer but that have nothing to do with the point really. - presenting anything that happened BECAUSE of him as if it just happened TO him😂. - accountability replaced completely by self pity. This man should seriously just go silent for a couple of years and work on his projects without the ehumiliation of his bs "updates"

[@tvctaswegia497]

I was surprised he didn't go the way back to his birth trauma and give us a blow by blow self analysis of every event in his life, relationships and personal development, culminating in where he is today.

[@SkyNet4272]

99.999% of this blog is Caspian, proving to us that he, in fact, can read but could not read a book about how to make a game. 69420/10 😅

[@j_kickass]

I swear, people will spend 5 hours writing about what they should work at, rather then spend 5 hours actually doing the work. Knowing Caspians type, i bet he felt like he really accomplished something after posting that blog.

[@KarhuLP]

Not gonna lie, its kinda stomachturning reading someone grandstanding and intellectualizing on existential philosophy, while making millions of dollars disappear like some shady magician. So i guess you made the best out of reading this brainfart, because i made it to the end.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

"If I talk about making a game, maybe eventually Ill make the game"

[@m.ccheddarbox874]

Wow so basically it was his staffs fault for not being good enough. That's what I heard anyways.

[@davidprice6002]

Reading books, studying stoicism, writing endless blogs- anything but actually making a game.

[@MSpotatoes]

Oh, it's Caspian, the same guy that took 20 minutes to explain that games can have trees, some even looking different from each other. 👏👏👏

[@Reasurria]

There's a good quote by I believe Robert. C. Martin (software guy). It goes "Don't go to the sydney opera house to practice. Go to perform.". Basically meaning, learn what you need to, but not when you are getting paid to already know.

[@maxm2639]

"I want to confess all my mistakes: I was too nice; I cared too much; I didn't believe enough in myself; I wasn't tough enough in an uncaring world; I didn't spend enough time on fog of war." What a pathetic, delusional, self-pitying, time & money wasting human being. However, great update!

[@michaelshepard4236]

I have a very close family member who Caspian reminds me of. All the blame should lay on his shoulders but he has created a reality that has diminished every wrong he has done and tried to blow up in value the minimal successes. This in turn makes it seem like they are a victim in this reality and no one sees it but them. This unfortunately just hurts themselves more and more. Sad really.

[@0002pA]

Holy heck, nearly an entire hour long! Time to get cozy on the couch for this!

[@asimplekraken1318]

Yay! Just dropped perfect timing to go to bed listening to Kira talk about Caspian. Perfect.

[@justskip4595]

The real thing that the people got with their funding was the Kira series.

[@RuSosan]

Silver linings. 😂

[@IGoByAlllexia]

I am so here for Caspian's self help guru arc

[@landru27]

Caspian's most consistent statement is that things are "finally" where they need to be to "really move forward now". How many times has Caspian told us that everything is all set now, with clear roads ahead, no more obstacles, on track, full steam ahead?!? With CoE / KoE, the future is always bright, and _always_ just around the corner.

[@BunnyBoyUk]

sounds like he spent the 8 Million on making a library.

[@PossumMedic]

31:01 - "Not going to do the books... not doing it..." 😂

[@RealityCheckTime]

Obfuscation through details

[@FranNyan]

I'm only about halfway through but man, that's a lot of words that could have just been summed up as "I was an idiot who didn't know WTF I was doing. Research BEFORE you start a project."

[@TheSteveLynx]

"A hard thing is hiring someone only to discover they lack the full set of skills you need" He's telling this to the people who hired him to create the thing he said he had the skills for, ya know, the skills he has demonstrated to be surely lacking!

[@jaredbissenden6230]

I don't think I've ever seen someone read "Start with Why" and come back with completely the wrong conclusion. You're not supposed to use the book to justify the reason for a dead project, you're supposed to use it to understand "why" someone would want your product/service. If you want to make an immersive simulation MMORPG that's great, but you then have to understand why someone wants that experience and what that experience entails for a player. You can't just bumble into this sort of shit and hope it will figure itself out.

[@TheStowAway594]

I don't know anything about this whole situation, I literally just stumbled across this video and I just gotta say the person that wrote that diary/excuse/manifesto what planet is this person living on? Because it's not earth. Their lack of maturity & excessive narcissism is kind of shocking, and you can obviously tell they still don't understand, it's like they are constantly reading books hoping to find someone that will tell them it's not your fault, you're a good person, etc. They're constantly running away from any real accountability, and in turn, they will never find that inner peace they're supposedly striving for, and if they do they have a serious lack of empathy. Also if everything is above board why not show the accounts? It should take like 5 minutes to put that together, this isn't a mega-corp with 2000 employees, it's a small business with under 10. Either this person is mentally incompetent & unable to run a business (which many people are), or they are a liar.. probably both imo. Maybe they should read Jocko Willink's book about owning up to your failures.

[@Dante02d12]

I'd tell you to check out Kira's old videos on Kingdom of Elyria, but he tends to make videos longer than needed, so here is a summary: - Ten years ago, Caspian announced a medieval MMO game where you would live a life just like old times. He had made a video showing gameplay. The video was enough for Caspian to earn millions through crowdfunding. - After years of literally nothing except for that single video, Caspian comes back with a video of... a strategy game, like Age of Empire except it's terrible, and there's still not even a demo to try. Needless to say: it was far from what was advertised. And yet it was clear the money earned for Elyria had been spent on this new game. Caspian kept earning money through crowdfunding, and people still kept getting nothing. - Years kept passing and there was still nothing except a couple of videos showing where millions of dollars supposedly went in. Caspian kept writing on his blog, about a supposed game development, but we didn't get to see much of it. - This leads us to this video, where Caspian released a massive blog post about... anything but game development. Details are fuzzy in my head, so do watch Kira's videos about it if you want to know more ; it's a pretty funny drama.

[@Swqnky]

I know time zones exist but its funny watching a video with a date in the future in the corner

[@Easyflux]

"On today's episode of; Keeping up with the Caspians!"