Reset: The story of an unreleased game about a sad robot

“The Internet remembers everything,” we regularly hear. Alas, this is not entirely true. Old people on the Internet know well that forums and blogs disappear most often. In relation to game development, this usually means the disappearance of a whole layer of interesting information about the progress of development and the relationship of developers with the community. In this regard, I would like to talk about the process of creating a game that was once expected by me, but never released Reset from the studio Theory Interactive. After all, perhaps another five or ten years will pass, and this story will be completely forgotten.

The studio involved in the development included only two employees — Alpo Oksakharju And Mikko Kallinen. This was not the first game project for the Finnish guys — they had previously worked in a studio Futuremark, working on a space shooter Shattered Horizon and a couple of benchmarks. Alpo was a 3D modeler and Mikko was a programmer. The studio was named Theory Interactive, game engine — Praxis. Combination of theory and practice.

For the first time about the project Reset became known in February 2012 — the guys posted four screenshots on their blog. The game was positioned as a first-person cooperative puzzle game for single playthrough. That’s right, co-op single player. “Cooperative” was the ability to rewind time and solve puzzles along with your copies.

But the game really attracted attention only at the end of April, in connection with the release of the debut trailer. The trailer received more than 400 thousand views in a week, and the news about the game spread across all news portals. The trailer demonstrated highly detailed object models, high-quality lighting, dynamic weather changes and vegetation growth. But the main feature was the beautiful music and its synchronization with the video sequence — which is not surprising, because the music was personally written by programmer Mikko, and designer Alpo, who had a musical education, created an emotional scenario for the track. Music, graphics and lighting gave the trailer a melancholic atmosphere. It was hard to believe that two people were creating a game that was technically at the level of big-budget projects.

Game debut trailer

Shortly after the release of the debut trailer, the developers published a letter from an Australian on their blog Jamie Cancella, sending greetings from his son Adrian, who was two and a half years old. Jamie used various blogs and news sites to teach his son speech, and the Reset teaser caused a strong reaction from him. Watching the trailer was accompanied by comments such as “sad robot!"," the robot wakes up!", and when the robot’s hand moved, the child began pointing at the screen and shouting "robot forward!" and "robot Rrrrrrrrr". After that, the boy came into his father’s room half a dozen times, asking him to watch the trailer again. In connection with the appearance of this letter, in the West Reset became known as the “Game about a sad robot”.

Sad robot please dad

Adrian Cansell, two and a half years old

My son watches your trailer all the time. I’m already tired of him. I’m starting to pick on little things, like these growing trees look weird, like they’re getting bigger instead of growing

Jamie Cansell

After the trailer, 2012 became the year for the Finnish guys of interviews with various publications, from which you can learn a lot of interesting things. So, the guys had big ambitions — they planned to expand the studio, but only after the end of their current project, because they wanted to maintain independence. At that time they were already considering using crowdfunding, but Kickstarter was not available in Finland. The game was supposed to be released on PC, but subsequent porting to consoles was also allowed.

According to the developers, we had to play not as a robot, but as a person in an exoskeleton with the ability to regenerate. In the trailer, those attentive might have noticed inscriptions on the robot’s screens about the restoration of gray matter, nanoblood, bots and defibrillation. In fact, after a long time, the exoskeleton resurrected its wearer. The developers called the exoskeleton Zero-Two (Zero—Two). Zero-two was also equipped with a device that allowed him to rewind time, which formed the basis of the gameplay. A game about a man waking up decades later in a destroyed civilization should have focused primarily on the atmosphere and plot. The action would take place in an abandoned city. A small open game world full of puzzles was planned. Completing puzzles was allowed in random order and would not open up new opportunities or locations, only revealing the plot story

Screenshots from the game announcement

The developers did not avoid questions regarding the high quality of the trailer. Even then, many journalists doubted whether the guys had spent all their time creating a beautiful trailer for a dead game. The doubts were also supported by a blog entry that appeared after the release of the debut video stating that the developers would then focus on the gameplay. According to Alpo’s response, development deliberately started with certain game design elements such as vegetation, clouds and lighting systems, and the trailer was just a by-product of development testing and showcasing the technical foundation they had created, and was made entirely in the game engine.

Despite the promise of https://wwin-casino.co.uk/ gameplay work, the blog posts continued to cover the work on lighting, reflections and shadows very seriously, even providing footnotes with references to the literature used in the process. By the end of December 2012, a second video appeared on the developers’ channel, demonstrating work on atmospheric lighting. The developers justified the need to create appropriate technology by implementing day and night in the game, as well as dynamic changes in weather conditions. However, the mention in the blog of scientific terms about the structure of clouds and complex mathematical algorithms suggested that the efforts were going towards something wrong. However, the developers announced the relative readiness of the script and the start of work on the game world. The game was still in pre-alpha stage.

Demonstration of clouds closer to the release date

Starry sky demonstration

Overall, 2012 was an eventful year for developers. In their own words, the guys were immersed in work and were unprepared for the attention given to the project, even if it was positive. They simply don’t have the energy left to focus on public attention. As a result, the frequency of blog updates also dropped. In addition to developing the game, they managed to fly to Norway and speak at a seminar, and Alpo became a father. A water pipe burst in the office, almost destroying the work computers and forcing the developers to move for a couple of months. By the end of the year, the guys admitted that although development was going according to plan, they were unable to estimate the production time in advance and were now accustomed to an uncertain schedule. However, the guys planned to organize collective financing and release the game next year, 2013.

In April 2013, however, the developers postponed the gameplay demo indefinitely. They began to burn out from work and decided to devote a couple of months to family and friends while continuing development in the background. 100 days later, in August, the developers announced their return and continued work on the game. But ironically, the day after the end of the break, they were notified of the start of sewerage work with the accompanying shutdown of water. The toilet no longer worked. It seems the world was not yet ready for the fruit of their labor.

First gameplay teaser

At the beginning of October, a project page appeared on Steam Greenlight, but the project has not yet been put up for voting. And already on October 28, 2013, as promised, the first gameplay trailer was demonstrated, which again attracted the attention of news portals to the project. The trailer once again shone with music and atmosphere. At the same time, the developers explained the game mechanics to us: we mark a point in space and complete part of the puzzle, after which we make a time jump and return to this point, creating a second time line and a copy repeating our actions. From the engine’s point of view, this copy is equivalent to the second player. According to the developers, due to the physical model of the interaction of the engine, a butterfly effect arose — for example, in the trailer, a truck driven by a copy stops in a slightly different place, since it has become heavier due to our jump on its roof. The developers did not intend to limit themselves to one copy.

Crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo was supposed to start on the day the trailer was released, but due to bureaucracy and inexperience of the developers it was postponed until November 11. The problem turned out to be that the PayPal account was not ready to accept donations. After the start of the campaign, we learned new details about the game: 33 individual puzzles, an open world on a fictional volcanic Galapagos island measuring 16 square kilometers, approximately 6 hours of gameplay, dynamic day and night with reliable star positions, release at the end of 2014.

The campaign was also accompanied by another trailer with a clearer demonstration of the gameplay mechanics. Games mentioned as sources of inspiration were: Portal And The Misadventures of P. B. Winterbottom, although Reset reminded me more of Temporal from 2008 and The Swapper from 2013 — there is something exciting in contemplating your temporary copies and clones. The developers were going to spend the funds raised on voice acting and sound effects, and allowed hiring help to create content. Less than a week before the end of the campaign, the guys received a devkit Oculus Rift and promised VR support.

Separate gameplay demo for Indiegogo

Under Finnish law, crowdfunding is considered legal if it is based on pre-sales, i.e. the sale of actual goods. Therefore, a reward system was introduced. The minimum contribution with incentives started at 20 euros for a standard edition, which scared off many. For 35 euros a soundtrack was added to a copy of the game, for 45 euros a name mention on an in-game memorial, for 70 euros a T-shirt, for 80 euros a physical copy of the game. For 750 euros we were allowed to design one NPC, and for 2500 euros we could sit at the same table with the developers during the launch party for the game. Most incentives, with the exception of T-shirts, were to be delivered upon completion of the project. This game was almost the only one I sponsored. Fortunately, my stingy temperament did not allow me to buy a T-shirt for 4 thousand rubles at that time, otherwise they would have added the “I’m not a sucker” badge to it for free.

The goal of the campaign was 65 thousand euros. Fundraising, however, was sluggish. A day and a half before the end of the campaign, the goal was still 22 thousand short. It’s hard to say what caused this — a long pause from the developers after the debut trailer, a delay in the start of the campaign, or a less popular platform compared to Kickstarter. As a result, several large donations came in in the last hours, and the goal was slightly exceeded. Was there foul play involved?? We’ll never know. The campaign attracted almost two thousand people. Reset became the first crowdfunded project in Finland.

Further news about the project appeared in April 2014. Level design was in full swing, the developers had already begun negotiations with the GOG platform. As planned, award-winning sound designer has joined Theory Interactive Ari Pulkkinen (Resogun). We again noted the work on the game’s compatibility with Oculus Rift and surround sound environment, in order to achieve maximum immersion in the game. Second version of the devkit Oculus Rift was ordered immediately after it became available. In the same month, T-shirts were finally prepared and sent out to those who supported the project. In May the guys got a new office, the blog post was full of optimism. In July, they talked about work on the user interface and cockpit interface. The robot’s cockpit was also supposed to act as the main menu. Alas, by October the developers realized that they would not have time to release the game before the end of the year, and again asked to wait. This, however, did not stop them from announcing that they had made the game compatible with Oculus Rift DevKit2, and crowdfunding participants soon received a letter promising a demo of the beta version of Reset with one of the puzzles by Christmas. But we waited in vain for the demo. Thus, 2014 had nothing in store for fans.

In the end, the release of the demo version was scheduled for March 27, 2015, but life made its own adjustments, and it was postponed twice more, until April 18. For me, the demo was a disappointment — the vaunted clouds and lighting were full of artifacts, and the optimization, including Oculus Rift compatibility, was terrible. Our robot slowly ran along long roads in an empty city, which clearly lacked good assets. The puzzles were made in an extremely unintuitive way — I couldn’t even find them myself. Most of my illusions and expectations were shattered.

In July 2015, the developers promised to work on optimizing the demo for a full release on Steam Greenlight, scheduled for the end of the month. The demo version was supposed to be freely available, and the game was supposed to have a release date. The developers also tried to revive the blog by going to talk about development every Thursday, but only lasted two weeks. Due to delays in optimization work, Steam Greenlight voting began two months later, in September. The tentative release date was set for next spring, 2016. The game successfully passed the vote, managing to take third place in the top among more than 1,600 projects, but collected only 7,425 votes, which clearly indicated a decline in interest in the game itself and Steam Greenlight. By the end of 2015, it seemed that the game was one step away from release.

In January 2016, the developers were still planning a release for the spring, but acknowledged the difficulties with the implementation of Oculus Rift, deciding to add VR support after release. By the end of spring, the release was again postponed to September–October. At the beginning of summer, a trailer was released reflecting the final result of work on the technologies — we were shown the cycle of day and night with a simulation of the rotation of the planet, an increase in the humidity of the area when local rain clouds appear. In the blog, the developers talked about the astronomically correct position of the stars and the Moon, as well as about Guerilla Games’ inspiring presentation on working on volumetric clouds for the game Horizon: Zero Dawn. In September, the game received a specific release date for the first time — December 20, and the Russian artist Andrey Surnov created an official poster for the project. Just two days before the release, the developers reported that they did not meet the deadline and asked for “a couple more spare days”.

There was no news until March 2017, and in April a video with 13 minutes of gameplay was released, but no one spoke about the new release date. After this, the frequency of blog updates became less and less frequent. In February 2018, the developers promised to soon release a release trailer for the game, which never happened. In January 2019, the studio announced participation in work on a third-party mobile game Alien: Blackout, calling it necessary to financially support the studio. This was the last blog post until April 2022, when Alpo and Mikko revealed that they were mentally, physically and financially exhausted and decided to put the project on hold. Crowdfunding participants received a letter in which the developers expressed gratitude and stated that it was impossible to release the game or return the funds. At this point, the ten-year epic of the game Reset and the Theory Interactive studio can be considered over.

We would like to return funds to all sponsors, but, as already said, we are broke. Our great gratitude to you cannot be expressed in words, but at the same time we understand that these words are empty and meaningless in the absence of games and refunds. If we could just release the game or refund your funds, we would.

Alpo Oksakharju, from a letter to Indiegogo backers

As of today, the developer blog is no longer accessible, the Steam Greenlight and the corresponding game page no longer exist. The YouTube channel says that the studio has been closed and the channel is being maintained for "nostalgic reasons". Even the Australian boy Adrian managed to grow up and become a teenager during these 12 years, most likely completely forgetting about the “sad robot”.

Virtual Reality Obsession

Fortunately, the game’s Russian community on VK, the project’s Indiegogo page, news and interviews still allow us to gather a relatively complete picture of the development process. Also, as a result of my searches, it became known that Alpo founded a company in 2021 Pixl Noir, works as a software designer, although her income is not impressive. Mikko is listed as an auxiliary graphics programmer at Control from 2019 and Control: Ultimate Edition from 2021, as well as a graphics programmer in Alan Wake 2. Obviously, everything worked out well for him, and he joined the Finnish Remedy Entertainment and contributed to its graphics technologies.

Was the whole project a scam?? It seems not. Excessive ambitions and the reluctance of developers to compromise led to this result. The guys showed themselves to be first-class technical specialists, but this also became their Achilles heel. Firstly, from the very beginning they insisted on creating their own engine and their own technologies, not wanting to use ready-made, albeit less optimal solutions. Secondly, the guys did not know when to stop, having reached the point of creating an astronomically correct world and scientifically realistic clouds. Thirdly, they did not know how to plan work, which is why the release was pushed back from year to year and from quarter to quarter. Fourthly, the guys succumbed to the then reigning VR hysteria, instead of creating a game, they wasted a lot of energy and time flirting with Oculus Rift. So Mikko’s position is in his native Remedy Entertainment has become a great place for a talented Finn. Such people need to either work on the technical component of large games, or on the main engines of the industry. The guys were simply not suitable for independent work on the project.

Overall active development Reset took five years, the game was canceled two days before release. Perhaps the developers already had a ready-made build of the game, but they realized that it did not meet market standards and lost heart. For the next five years, the project existed only in the background.

Those who read this story may have a question, since according to Finnish law, crowdfunding occurs in the format of a pre-sale, is it possible to hold the guys accountable for failure to fulfill obligations?? Indeed, unlike projects from Kickstarter, here the argument about the voluntariness of donations is not enough. Most likely, not yet. To be charged with fraud, one would have to prove the presence of criminal intent, and work on the game was clearly underway. In civil law relations, it is quite possible that the statute of limitations has already expired. Yes, even if there were legal grounds for filing a claim, none of the sponsors scattered around the world would do this.

Finally, I would like to attach the names of two tracks left from the game: Mikko Kallinen – Weathering a Storm And Time Heals. The project is dead, but the music lives on.