Gosh, yeah! I hope you didn't back their other Kickstarter.

Seriously, has anyone told these people 'how to dev'? Unless you've somehow messed up the files, there's no way it should take a month to make a different patch for GOG (after doing the Steam one). At all. If other developers with smaller, less-professional teams can manage it, why can't these guys?

I don't see how any non-steam "fan" would back another project of theirs.
Since release they have shown a disregard for any sale platform other than Steam. This includes the backer versions.
Leaving out the terrible communication, failure to email all backers the patch download links etc, think of the christmas level: the Steam version was updatd so the game includes the christmas level. Backers got emailed a stand alone installer for the level. GoG and GamersGate customers did not recieve it - they simply forgot about them. Then this stand alone installer was released as the new free demo and BFG decided that if those forgotten customers wanted the level as well, they could go download the demo.
And that's it: the devs have decided that if you want the full game, then you should have bought it on Steam. For the rest, thank you for your money, if they get round to it, perhaps you may recieve the stuff at some point, but until then, they'll remember to ask you for more money please.
Besides, how could they patch anythign but Steam? They were too busy with the Wii version. And mentioning that, how about you buy a Wii so you can buy the game on there as well and support the Devs?
*sigh*

/end rant.

It's not that I take it personal or anything. But as a professional (even though not in game development) I cannot stand to see this kind of behaviour. If I would even consider treating a client like that, I'd expect them to never work with me again.

Wow, I didn't realise the situation was *quite* that bad.

News?

Nope. Try the official forum. Maybe they will answer. Doubt you'll get a good one though.

On kickstarter they posted this:

Creator Black Forest Games 6 days ago

Hey backers,
there will soon be an anouncement regarding 'Rise of the Owlerlord' so stay tuned.
We are still working on the easy mode patch for the DRM-free version and when we have any news about it we will inform you asap. Sorry it is taking us so long.
Best regards,
BFG Freddy

I don't see how compiling a patch without the Steam APIs can take almost two months ...

Maybe they plan to include the add-on for free, but that's probably wishful thinking on my part.

You mean the add-on you can already pre-order on steam with a 20% discount? ;)

Exactly, wouldn't it be awesome if it were included with the DRM-free patch? :)

Awesome? Sure.
Going to happen? No.

What will happen is that in two months people will be here asking when the DLC will be released for the GoG version and get no answers.

This just isn't funny now. Doubt I'll buy anything from this studio again.

The worst part is that, as PeterAlf said, even Kickstarter backers didn't get this update.

I think they may have financial problems. AFAIR they hire ~40 people, mostly from Spellbound Entertainment which means they won't work cheap. Do they have any other source of income or it's just Giana game? If it's the latter they may have a serious problem...

I think they only have Giana Sisters at the moment.
The second project they tried to kickstart failed.
I also suspect that they misjudged the costs of stuff they send to backers. I know they skimped on packaging to save money, which most likely ended up costing them money when backers got for example posters in bad condition.

The "sad" reality though is that the idea behind crowdfunding is to give projects a chance that may otherwise not come to the public's or a publisher's attention or be of a publisher's liking. It will not on the long term save companies that lack proper management. I'm thinking of Shadowrun Returns or that Double Fine kickstarter that got bad press - both from very talented people who decided to break out of evil publishers' grips. Well, maybe publishers though evil, kinda did have a reason to be strict with them. Backers weren't and well... ;)
But back to Giana Sisters: when rewards were being send out I was about to change address. To be on the safe side, I tried to contact BFG to have my package shipped to a friend's address. I thought it may have been best if I contacted them through kickstarter, as then the message would be directly linked to my backer data (at least it seemed like the logical thing to do). As I didn't hear back from them, I contacted an admin on their forum who replied that they don't really check their kickstarter messages anymore and I should send an email instead (which I did and that too they did not read - my package ended up being send to the wrong country). What I would have expected the admin to do is give the people doing the shipping a shout and say "Hey guys, apparently someone send their address change via a kickstarter message. If you haven't, have a quick look." It is something you could quickly tell someone over the phone, when running into them in the corridor or even in a quick mail/forum pm. It is what a person would do if they felt the need to get a job done properly. Obviously they didn't. For me it was indication that while they were able to make an amazing game, they lacked the organisational inclination or maturity to actually run a business.
And that is my experience. What I have seen and heard from other backers is worse.

It is a shame to see good talent go to waste. But to run a business you need more than that. So I would not be surprised if they are struggling. Though of course I wouldn't wish them ill. It would be great if they could pull their act together and manage to stay an indie developer.

Gosh, that's ridiculous. The one KS I backed asked twice (once when backed, a second time when it was about to ship out rewards) to confirm shipping addresses, and gave you the ability to update them, etc.

Has GOG heard anything new from Black Forest, or should we just assume they're not actually going to release the patch at this point?

At this point, I've about given up all faith in Black Forest Games. Between the annoying pop up for DRM-free versions (the "consider buying the game" one) and their inability to show any regard for non-Steam owners of the game... At this point I'd rather not have gotten the game in the first place.