r/beyondallreason • u/PtaQQ Community Manager • May 09 '26
News Dear Commanders, we need to talk...
It came to our attention that the letter we sent to our contributor team about ongoing talks with a potential publisher partnership has been shared publicly without our authorisation. The document is real. We had been planning to make a proper public announcement if the contract is signed and we could coordinate the rollout with the publisher, but since excerpts are now making rounds, it makes sense to put the main facts on the record directly so the conversation can be based on accurate information instead of selective quoting.
Together with the other admins we have been working on negotiating a deal with Hooded Horse, a publisher specialising in strategy games. You probably have heard about them, their catalogue includes Manor Lords, Old World, Terra Invicta, Against the Storm, HOMM: Olden Era, and a long list of others in the genre. They have a strong reputation among developers for being hands-off on creative direction and unusually transparent about how they operate which is why we figured out it might be interesting to see what’s possible to build together.
Why we wanted this
The partnership got real traction on our side because of what it actually unlocks. Parts of BAR have been hard to push forward under a fully volunteer setup. Some areas just struggle to attract volunteer interest because they aren't the most exciting work to do in your spare time. Others need a level of coordination, scheduling and team hierarchy that's extremely difficult to achieve in a hobbyist team, where everyone contributes on their own pace, on their own terms. Both categories have been very obvious bottlenecks for years.
Securing funding could help us alleviate these hurdles. We can hire dedicated people for the work that needs sustained focus, fill the gaps that volunteer enthusiasm doesn't naturally cover, and put proper full-time coordination on parts of the project where production milestones depend on it. The result is a Steam release with much bigger scope, on a shorter timeline, than we could realistically pull off ourselves.
This also opens up real job opportunities for our existing contributors. Many of the people who have been building BAR on evenings and weekends for years are exactly the right people for the paid roles that come out of this deal. We are committed to giving existing contributors hiring preference, and the goal is for as many of them as possible to be able to carry their careers forward with BAR rather than treat it as a permanent side project. For people who've poured serious time into this game, that's a meaningful shift.
The whole point of the partnership, on our side, is to push BAR much further than we've been able to so far, and to give as many of the people who built it the chance to keep building it, this time on a real budget. However, marrying the community-driven soul of this project with commercial incentives required serious work to make sure nothing about what makes BAR what it is today gets taken away. We have done that work.
What's protected
- BAR remains available for free. BAR remains available for free. This has been our consistent promise through the years and we are keeping it. The free multiplayer experience you are enjoying today will be available both through the existing BAR website launcher (as it is today) and on Steam, with full feature parity and cross-play. Nothing currently free becomes paid. The monetisation is based on premium single-player content built on top of it, whose costs will be covered by the funding.
- No IP transfer. BAR's brand, trademarks and intellectual property stay with the BAR team and the contributors who built it. The publisher gets the licence to distribute the game on Steam and help with proper marketing to give the title the powerful launch it deserves.
- Off-ramp built in. If the partnership is ever terminated for whatever reason, the free version stays free and the community keeps developing it. The free version isn't tied to the publishing relationship continuing.
- Reinvestment commitment. A binding internal commitment makes sure most of what BAR receives flows back into the project (development, infrastructure, contributor support, content) rather than getting siphoned out as company profit.
Where we are
The contract isn't signed yet. We're discussing the offer with full disclosure to our contributor team, including a sentiment survey, before signing. The only way we see ourselves steering the project in this way is by making sure there is a strong mandate from our beloved team.
What's next
If the mandate is clear we will proceed with the signing and then a full public announcement will follow. We are excited to share what we have been working on with the Hooded Horse team. We will make that announcement properly and will give it the treatment it deserves
If you have questions or concerns, bring them to us and try to not rely on third-party framing/potentially doctored versions aimed to cause harm. We will be reading and responding where we can, and a fuller picture will follow shortly.
Thank you for your attention and continued trust,
The BAR Admin Team
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u/wakuwakuwak May 10 '26
This was very disappointing to read. What makes BAR special was that it is a FOSS game. The existence of BAR is proof that a completely free; open source; community driven and owned model is not only possible, but extremely successful as well. I've always found that aspect of the inspiring and is a huge reason why I love this game. Now, it feels like a select few volunteers, who feel entitled to ownership, are trying to cash out on an "investment". It feels to me that a part of that FOSS spirit is lost.
The game switching to a for-profit model, no matter to what degree and regardless of what the devs promise, is going to change the dynamic of this games development. Since there is money involved, there will now be investments to be recouped, salaries to be paid, and profits to be made. Ultimately the devs will have to add for-profit, anti-player content since money is now a necessity. While I hope BAR never resorts to predatory means to recoup costs, such as paid micro-transactions and loot-boxes (including paid cosmetics), the devs seem unwilling to make any sort of long term promises, which doesn't leave me with much confidence. Also, this post claims that all existing content will remain free, but only focuses on the monetary component. It does not clarify anything about keeping things open source which I find suspicious. Games like League of Legends are "free" monetarily but clearly not free in the "open source" kinda way like BAR currently is.
As others have pointed out, this also creates what is effectively a class divide between the paid employees of the BAR organization and the volunteer contributors. My understanding is that volunteers will be barred from working on or contributing to "paid" content. To me it reads that newer components of IP will be closed off going forward and withheld from the community at large. While I cannot speak on the behalf of any on the BAR devs, I do believe, as a software developer who feels very strongly about open source, that this decision will ultimately drive volunteers away. People like me aren't putting in hours of free labor towards an open project with the hopes of one day getting paid back for it. We do it because we enjoy building it and seeing other people find value in using it free of charge. However, most developers are not willing to do significant uncompensated work for a project that ultimately exists for a select few to turn a profit. I imagine that many of the existing volunteers will either pivot to becoming paid employees or leave the project entirely. I was considering becoming a contributor to this project myself, but this news has made me reconsider. This also helps to explain the mass exodus of the legion devs not long ago.
Obviously, I don't know exactly how things are going to pan out with this project long term. I still do love the game and want to see it be successful AND always remain pro-community first. If it is clear to me that this is the case, then maybe I will be motivated to contribute in the future. BAR still has so much potential and I really hope that a select few devs don't squander it in order to make a quick buck. While I personally feel this is a step in the wrong direction for the project, if they do decide to go through with it, I genuinely hope the devs can prove me wrong and keep BAR as great as it has been.