Yesterday I wrote an article reporting that Deadstick, the long in development indie bushplane simulator, was stopping development and going on indefinite hold. Then, this morning I received word from the community manager of the Deadstick Discord server that this story was a fake. Following that, there’s been a few words written by the lead developer on the community Discord. I’m here to report on it all. So let’s get started.

So, it’s not dead right?

Chris, the lead developer on Deadstick, wrote an update back in 2021 notifying the community that the previous publisher for Deadstick and REMEX Entertainment (the developer company of the sim) had decided to part ways. That change affected the schedule and the scope but the goal was to continue on anyways.

Then, fast forward to this week when I received word that a statement from the developers was circulating and indicating that the project was essentially dead.

I was sad to hear it and then wrote a story about it. Links were shared and a website purporting to contain a statement from the lead developer confirmed the story. There’s just one problem. It’s not true. The website, though seemingly convincing enough, is a fake.

The word I have now is that the website was created by a disgruntled fan banned from the Deadstick community Discord. In reaction, I’m removing the original story and leaving a note about it to help stop any misinformation from spreading. As always, my goal is to tell you what we know and although the story was initially convincing, I refuse to be part of any additional spread of fake information.

What’s next for Deadstick?

If the project isn’t dead you may what to know what is happening with it. If there is a silver lining here, it is that we’ve got a few small and informal updates from Chris and it does confirm that Deadstick is still happening. Here’s what he had to say on their Discord community.

Hi all! Big thanks for the mods for catching/handling this one – lawyers have been notified and will be taking appropriate action. Whilst I’m afraid I can’t provide any public updates just now, lots going on behind the scenes – Deadstick not dead yet!

Chris

With the ending of the previous publisher relationship and the goal of finding a new publisher, it’s likely that Chris and team are keeping a low profile while they work out a deal. That’s understandable and its reassuring to hear that things are still happening behind the scenes.

Later, he added some additional information responding to a question about getting some new updates. Here’s what he had to say.

When we have stuff we want to show – Honestly the updates became a bit of a burden and distraction from actually getting stuff done. The team scaled back considerably as a result of the announcement and we’ve had to take on some other work to pay the bills (as is the reality of life) – however that in itself has been fun as I think we were all getting a bit burned out by where we’d ended up with Deadstick and the stresses of trying to overcome the various technical hurdles we were facing at the time. It’s been mega exciting / refreshing getting back to basics with it with a very core team with some interesting new doors opening also.

Chris

Sounds good to me. When the time is right, I definitely want to see more with what Deadstick is going to evolve into but until then we need to sit tight and be patient. I wish Chris and his team good luck on both their new projects and with this one and I still hope to see this project come to fruition.

So to Chris I apologise for spreading the wrong information about his project. And to you, the reader, I apologize for providing to you something that proved to be fake information. I will continue to be even more vigilant in the future.

Be sure to check in on the Deadstick community Discord right here.