A little known game by the name of Dark Matter saw its release a couple of days ago on Steam. Like many other smaller titles, Dark Matter went through the Steam Greenlight process and was voted upon by the community to be released. Interestingly enough, the game's Greenlight campaign was cut short as the developer went through a publisher to circumvent the process. The game is incomplete, but more on that later.
The game's developers at InterWave Studios ran a dual campaign for Dark Matter–firstly to get it through Greenlight, and secondly to fund its development on Kickstarter.
At the time, the general manager of InterWave Studios wrote: "We could release Dark Matter right now in its beta form, but there is a level of polish and some necessary tweaking to gameplay mechanics required in order to ensure the game provides people with an exceptional, fun and intense experience. The funding will provide us with the additional two months we need to complete Dark Matter. At the same time, we are looking to publish Dark Matter via Steam Greenlight’s system that uses their community to pick upcoming new games."
Its Greenlight campaign was a success cut short due to having secured a publisher. The Kickstarter campaign was not a success, and earned only £6,227 of its £50,000 goal. Regardless of its failure to receive financial backing, the game's release went ahead as planned and Dark Matter landed on Steam.
It's deduceable therefore that the game was released in this beta state, with no foreseeable plans for completion.
Upon reaching a certain point in the game, around 4 hours in, players passing through a door will be see a "game over" screen with centered white text informing players of the game's end. Here's the last minute of the game:
As depicted, there's nothing to indicate prior to entering the room that the game is even about to end. It just does.
Instead of disputing this, its developers have since posted responses on the game's official Steam forums to proclaim that the game is in fact "complete", and that the game over screen is a "bug" that will "be addressed".
While it's up in the air as to whether Dark Matter will ever see an expansion or have its story continued, the fact of the matter is that the game–as it is–was released in an incomplete state and both its developers at InterWave and its publishers at Iceberg Interactive are equally responsible for putting out a game without an ending.
Caveat emptor.
