Jeromy Walsh, the now-solo developer of Chronicles of Elyria, posted a “blog” in his Discord about the current state of his work flow in the years-long wake after an infamous lawsuit. The post from the one-man Soulbound team gets into his irritation with the demand for updates, his mental health, and his fight with the “overconfidence effect” as he works on bringing his game’s website back up.
In the new post on Discord, Walsh claims that attention has been directed onto him lately for his lack of updates by publications with “nothing more pressing, interesting, or concerning to write about,” content creators that peddle “in entertainment and peoples’ dissatisfaction” with the world, and “someone on the internet with either too many or too few problems.”
On that last note, he calls out one vitriolic unsolicited message in particular with both polite questions and more scathing attitudes, and decides to break this down. He admits in the post that he certainly “overpromised,” and has clearly missed deadlines along the way, but he’s worked “every single day to deliver a fully realized CoE” for “the last 5 years now, without pay.” He clarifies this to state that he is not taking pay (emphasis his) “from any source,” though when the lawsuit was dismissed back in 2022, he did state he was working on outside work as a software engineer – however, that obviously could have changed in the intervening years.
After criticizing the author of the message for already deciding “that what I’m going to say is bullshit, a lie, or otherwise meaningless,” Walsh dives into why the website, which was taken down late last year, is still down.
“The short answer is, I suck,” Walsh explains. He continues, “No, really. I was pushed to announce the website refresh and make changes due to external factors, so I made the announcement and was like, ‘How bad could redoing the website from scratch actually be?’”
Walsh goes on to disparage his own skills, stating that he was “as much a victim of the overconfidence effect as anyone else.”
Walsh then continues, admitting that he’s in over his head and states he is “doing the work of 20 people all by my onesies.” However, despite this, he’s resolved that “delivering this game to the people who backed it is the most important thing to me, worth any cost to do so, and I’ve fully dedicated to that cause. Very few people can say they’ve dedicated themselves so singly to something they feel to be a worthy cause.”
The message also highlights some of the mental health struggles Walsh is going through, from depression to struggling with ADHD, and while this has contributed to the current pace at which both versions of Elyria have progressed, he does state that “pre-Alpha experiences” are “coming up.” No actual timetable was given for this, however.
In the last few paragraphs, Walsh explains that he isn’t posting updates for Chronicles of Elyria as frequently nor transparently as he hopes because if there aren’t announcements, “it means there’s nothing you need to pay attention to as present.” He points out that some people want to know details to the point of essentially micromanagement, and even when he does share live progress, “no more than 2-5 people show up.” In short, he wants people to believe he’s making progress, and if there’s anything to share, he’ll put it in his Early Access channels on Discord. This is consistent with his decision last year to pull back the transparency to focus squarely on his backers.
The full post, as originally screenshotted from the Chronicles of Elyria Discord by Reddit user /u/Shmanky, can be read below:
Jeromy Walsh Discord update, page 1
Jeromy Walsh Discord update, page 2
Jeromy Walsh Discord update, page 3
Jeromy Walsh Discord update, page 4
Chronicles of Elyria ended its initial 2016 Kickstarter campaign with $1.36 million from over 10,000 backers, though the studio admitted even at the time that it would need at least $3 million to finish, and it eventually got over $8 million through its website. In some semblance of good news, Chronicles technically started its first pre-alpha in 2020.
Not long after, though, it ran out of money and shut down its studio just at the start of COVID, suffering layoffs in the thick of that pandemic. The sudden shuttering prompted a group of backers to contact the Washington State Attorney General to start up a lawsuit. The class action lawsuit was dismissed in 2022, which Walsh pointed out at the time is a victory for any crowdfunded company that wants to experiment with its product and funding. In the same breath, he also claimed it was a victory for its backers, who still have yet to see the game.
While this is hardly the first time the CoE dev has swiped back at criticism, especially noting how media coverage is framed, this is still something newsworthy to report. It’s been nine years since the Kickstarter and five years since the first pre-alpha of Chronicles of Elyria , with no actual timeline for future tests other than they are “coming up,” all while potential players have sunk millions into the development costs of the MMO thanks to the crowdfunding efforts before 2020.
Ta, Felix, for the tip.
