A post from last week on the Under the Ocean Steam forum explains that the early access version of Under the Ocean is no longer being offered, as one of the game's two original developers struggles to complete the project in light of the departure of the programmer after the project ran out of money late last year (thanks MCV). Under the Ocean is the earliest of early access games, as it was one of the dozen titles announced when Valve debuted the program almost two years ago. Word from Paul Hart is that he plans to soldier on in spite of all the setbacks:

So where does this leave the project without a programmer? Well, it leaves just me left, out of money and maybe against better judgement and out of sheer stubbornness, I am not quitting, I will not declare this project dead. I don't care how long this takes, I don't care how hard, I WILL finish this project, by myself if that's what it takes. I made a promise to finish this project and that is exactly what I plan to do, against all odds.

This news will obviously come as a huge blow to everyone awaiting alpha 9, as it means what we know as alpha 9 today will have to be shelved and completely rebuild with my (limited) programming ability. Before you descend into nasty remarks or anything of that nature, know Mike and I have been trying for the longest time to try and get this thing out, and this has been one of the hardest posts Ive had to make in my life, whatever emotion you feel for this, multiply that by a year of work for a missed goal.

So lets talk financials, but I will be doing something that I have wanted to do for some time while working on alpha 9, I will be de-listing the game from Steam until a decent build is available, I think this makes the most sense as I don't want to deceive people into thinking the game is one thing when it is not. So as soon as I can hook it up, this game will be de-listed. As far as refunds, as I mentioned before I don't have enough money to pay them at the moment, so when/if sales start to happen again, I can start offering them again, but right now refunds are coming out of my (non existent) bank balance, I may need to work part-time to keep the dream alive, but more importantly feed my son. I will make a post when the project starts making money again so you can start asking again.