It’s been a while since I reported on indie flight sim developer REMEX and their ambitious bushplane simulator Deadstick. Unfortunately the news is not good as the developers have decided to stop development, at least for now, on the dream of bringing Deadstick to life.
UPDATE: June 24 at 7:55 am EDT. A representative of the Deadstick community Discord has informed me that the website and statement are fake. It looked real enough such that I didn’t question it. The long silence on the project seemed to be indicative that it was also not going anywhere. Stay tuned for further information as I try and confirm details. Read the below article accordingly.
SECOND UPDATE: June 24 at 11:18 pm EDT. The original story turns out to be completely false. See the new story for the real deal.
Stormbirds 
That is very sad. I was really looking forward to this one. I always wondered what that kind of flying was like (besides hard). I was in Anchorage once admiring all the float planes coming and going, and I wondered if one of the pilots might like to trade jobs with me for a month.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve no idea if its actually a fun job but there is certainly a romantic notion of the bushplane flyer.
MSFS is my goto for that kind of flying these days. I haven’t done much recently but … soon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was following Deadstick’s development. It was looking great, then MSFS 2020 came out, which was the beginning of the end unfortunately.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That had to be the case. Hard to fight a giant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
absolutely. A beast like MSFS doesn’t leave much of a market for smaller sims like this to fully thrive. Had to have been a factor in the decision process to abandon it. Such a huge shame as was really liking where this was going!
LikeLiked by 2 people
A few have mentioned that the arrival of MSFS may have doomed it. That part is a shame because I think it really offered something different.
I’m wondering if the devs might resurrect some of their ideas for some sort of MSFS add-on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t see it this way. What genres only have one product that crushes all others? I love flight sims and will buy (and have bought) almost any and all that come out. Same thing with space games and racing games. A successful entry will stimulate interest in the entire genre – see Starcraft, Grand Theft Auto, League of Legends, PUBG etc.
Yes it makes for more competition, but good products will sell well and bad products won’t, just like always. I see MSFS as the rising tide that lifts the entire genre, not as the death sentence for Deadstick or X-Plane or any other sim. It’s making the market bigger much more than it’s stealing sales.
I think the issue with Deadstick is all the different parts they were trying to make are very hard to put together. Just look at Arma or Star Citizen for an example of how tricky/janky it is to combine vehicles/first person/other gameplay elements. Maybe Battlefield does it, but they have a gazillion dollars and it’s mostly smoke and mirrors anyway.
You could put a lot of of what Deadstick promised into a mod for a flight sim. It would mostly be a pretty spreadsheet/stat tracker and things like that have been done before and can offer a good experience. You would almost definitely not be able to have visible damage and especially no first person though.
P. S. Everything I just said was rampant speculation. I’m a pilot, not a game publisher.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somebody build a deadstick experience inside MSFS please!
LikeLiked by 2 people
i just found it on steam added it to my wishlist, got paid went to pre order it… looks like were all in the same boat… really wish they would finish the game it looks absoulty amazing and i would love to play it even if they only did a demo version instead of the full game… kinda bummed out reading all these comments
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah it’s a sad story but it’s still possible that the story isn’t over yet either. If news ever comes down the pipe about it, I will be sure to write about it.
LikeLike