Parnell Confirms Continuing Limit Theory Development

Until February, development of the successfully Kickstarted open-world space sandbox Limit Theory had been extraordinarily well documented. Creator Josh Parnell has been enormously vocal with backers and followers, posting detailed updates to the KS page and the game's forums. Then, in early February, the usually active Parnell went quiet. Last night, we got in touch and received confirmation that development is ongoing and that regular communication will resume in the near future.

Since Limit Theory's Kickstarter receiving $187,865 in late 2012 (nearly four times its desired $50k), Parnell has been keeping detailed documentation of the development process. Daily posts described what's been going on with the game until January of this year. The last post, on January 9th, promised more details about the HUD for the next day. He continued to post to the forum up until the 1st February, however.

One of the last posts he made on 1st Feb explained how despite anxiety issues, he was then feeling more confident and secure with the game than he had in a long time.

"For once -- perhaps in the entire development process of LT -- I feel that I am living up to what you all expect of me. What a feeling. But more than that, it is the feeling that my dream is really, actually coming to life with alarming speed, right here on my screen. And that yes, it can actually be everything I wanted it to be."

Both the Limit Theory and Josh's personal Twitter have been quiet since January.

I sent an email to Parnell yesterday, hoping to hear positive news and, in a candid response, he explained that he has been working on Limit Theory despite unrelated matters that have caused him to cut back online communication.

In terms of everything being OK, though, well, here you have it -- "everything is going to be OK!" :) I've never, ever considered abandoning LT, and I continue to work to the best of my abilities each day.

As you might expect after such a sudden decrease in communication, some on the game's Kickstarter comments started to fear that the game might never appear. That seemed unlikely after two and a half years of meticulously detailed development and in his response to our email, Parnell assured us that his recent lack of online communication does not directly relate to Limit Theory and certainly isn't indicative of abandoned development.

That's splendid news for several reasons. The game is utterly fascinating in many ways, as my inability to pick out a single highlight from our previous coverage illustrates, and I'd be disappointed if it never found its way onto my PC. Then there are the Kickstarter backers, of course. As well as chipping in with funding, many of them have been involved in the conversations around development since the early days.

Mostly, it's good to hear directly from an optimistic Parnell after this uncharacteristic period of online silence. Hopefully we'll be able to bring you more details of the progress made in the last couple of months shortly.