Video Game That Crowdfunded $4000 Cancelled After Devs Blew Money on Booze and Strippers

In the video, Eric Tereshinski claims two business partners in his indie gaming company ETeeski misappropriated money collected through crowdfunding and investments. He said his ex-partners were friends for over 11 years and that they threatened to sue him if he released the game on his own.

Although he does not name them in the video, Tyler Monce and Devon Staley are the only listed team members on his company’s website.

“This is going to be the worst video I’ve ever had to make,” Tereshinski said in the video. “‘Ant Simulator’ is going to be canceled. I can’t work on ‘Ant Simulator’ anymore. I recently found out my ex-business partners were secretly stealing company money. They had secretly spent the overwhelming majority of both our Kickstarter money and the ‘Ant Simulator’ investment money on liquor, restaurants, bars, and even strippers. This is the reason it has become exceedingly clear to me that I cannot have my career associated with these guys.”

The total money lost includes $4,459 raised for game development tutorial videos through a 2014 Kickstarter campaign that had a goal of $4,000.

“I’m very pissed off I lost money. I lost over a year in work. And I lost a game that I loved and I was proud of and I was really looking forward to releasing on Steam and PS4,” Tereshinski said. “It was supposed to be my first big step in really taking a shot at making video games as a career. But I have to start over now.”

“Ant Simulator,” which was being developed for the computer and Playstation 4, has players manage an ant colony from the queen’s perspective. The simulation game was originally created by Tereshinski in 2014 as part of a 48-hour game jam, wherein game developers gather together with the goal of creating one or more games in a short amount of time.

Tereshinski closed his video by saying: “I’m definitely going to move forward more cautiously and not be so trusting, even of my closest friends, apparently.”