It seems this year’s E3 featured a number of high-profile thefts, including camera gear stolen from outlets Giant Bomb and Polygon. Developers didn’t get away scot-free either, with Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer losing a backpack full of tablets, handheld consoles and code for its latest game, Luftrausers.
According to a story by Brian Crecente on Polygon, Vlambeer’s gear was pilfered from the pool bar of the Figueroa Hotel in Los Angeles on June 13, not far from the LA Convention Center where E3 is held.
Unlike developer Indie Stone, which was left somewhat devastated after the theft of the source code and assets of Project Zomboid back in 2011, Vlambeer had the sense to keep regular backups of Luftrausers (or at least, not keep the sole copy of the game on a single machine).
While it’s by no means the end of the world for Vlambeer, as an indie dev, losing a backpack full of development hardware will take the wind out of your sails. From Polygon:
“Basically everything Vlambeer is in the bag,” he said. “So it kind of feels like Vlambeer got stolen. We have good backups. We take good care of everything, We’ve got decent backups to continue working. It’s just a giant pain”.
‘Vlambeer got stolen,’ Ridiculous Fishing dev says [Polygon]
Comments
8 responses to “Vlambeer’s Luftrausers Stolen During E3. Thank Goodness For Backups”
Kickstarter to regain funds for stolen hardware?
How about a kickstarter to raise money to put a bounty on the head of the thief?
Kickstarter so the thief can live day to day without having to thieve?
Hell yeah to that. Find that scumbag. If he’s stealing from a gaming conference, i think is living fine.
.. Yeah its not like youd want to be careful with a backpack full of confidential materials or anything 😐
S this is basically a game about flying pants?
man, i hope so!
While Vlambeer has gotten it right, it surprises me how many development studios don’t do proper source control or online backups. It’s incredibly easy to set up just a Git repository on a shared (and free) Dropbox account to ensure that even if a machine is stolen, your code is not gone.