There have been questions surrounding the development of Godus, a god simulation game by industry legend Peter Molyneux, ever since he kickstarted the project back in 2012. In June of last year Eurogamer claimed that sources close to them stated development on Godus had halted. As recently as March in an interview with Glixel Peter Molyneux stated "We really struggled, at times, to finish Godus." suggesting that the team at 22cans have stopped working on the project. So what is going on with Godus? Are 22cans ever going to deliver on their infamous kickstarter project?

I spoke to 22cans CEO Simon Phillips to ask him about the situation at 22cans. While the expansion for Godus, a real-time strategy version called Godus Wars had been released in February 2016, my research revealed that the last time the base game had been updated on Steam was as far back as November 2015. The last Kickstarter update was also released back in February 2016, when Godus Wars was announced. However, Phillips pointed out that the iOS version had been updated as recently as May 1st this year with added "features, fixes etc" and that other platforms would follow in due course.

The bottom line for 22cans and Godus according to Phillips is that "yes, it's still very much an ongoing project and it has its own resources working on it."

Work has been slow since 2012

Despite the reassurance of Phillips in the past, fans have still been skeptical. 22cans is a pretty busy place at the moment. The huge success of their mobile game The Trail means that the team is working on releasing updates for their mobile game every couple of weeks. 22cans recently revealed that it is also planning a Chinese release of The Trail possibly as soon as Q3.

Back in March Molyneux also hinted at work on a new IP Legacy though nothing is being revealed about it quite yet. The most anyone is saying is that it's very different from anything they have made before. While it seems that 22cans are still working on Godus, with the new IP and ongoing work on The Trail, as well as long periods of silence between updates, it seems that it's perhaps not a priority.

Others have suggested that 22cans are going mobile which is understandable given that Godus' latest updates was for iOS and that The Trail was completely mobile. However, Phillips has denied this.

"I would say that 22cans is a platform ‘agnostic’ developer. We love creating new IP and exploring new ideas. Recently those have suited mobile initially, but I wouldn’t say that that has formed any kind of mobile only strategy. We’ll always look at what formats suit our game ideas the best."

It is unclear which platform Legacy will be released for though Molyneux stated it's currently running on PC as he feels most comfortable playing it with a mouse. From what we know so far fans should not be concerned with 22cans turning Godus completely mobile.

Funding has also been an issue

22cans has never spoken about why development on Godus has been so slow but finances seem to be the obvious answer. The release of the game on early access as well as the expansion all did their part to boost funds for the project but have not been enough on their own. Molyneux stated that Godus has cost around $2million in development costs to date, money which as of yet the game has not made back. The Kickstarter project for Godus rose £526,563 back in 2012. Hopefully, with the success of The Trail and (if it's fortunate) Legacy the firm will create the funds to finish their long suffering project.

Godus is not a priority at the moment. Perhaps only because it cannot be. 22cans is still working on their project and say they are doing their best to get it finished, though, with the limited funds and resources, we might be waiting a while for it to come.

What do you think will happen to Godus?