Gas Powered Games has a string of excellent titles to its name, but because it doesn’t earn anything from its much-loved releases, it is in dire financial straits and reliant on a very tenuous Kickstarter to remain solvent.

In an interview feature on PCGamesN, Gas Powered games founder and head Chris Taylor revealed that none of the lauded developer’s games have met contractual sales obligations.

That means the publisher paid for development, but the indie team hasn’t seen a cent from ongoing sales, effectively putting it in a situation where it’s constantly reliant on publisher contracts to pay employees.

Taylor spoke of times in the developer’s 14 year history when he owed literally millions of dollars and had no way to meet payroll but somehow scrambled through, before hitting a run of bad luck with cancelled contracts late last year.

Now, if Wildman’s Kickstarter doesn’t at least meet its goal, the company is almost certain to fold, despite significant lay-offs.

Gas Powered Games produced Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, Dungeon Siege II, Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, Supreme Commander, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Space Siege, Demigod, Supreme Commander 2 and much of the content of Age of Empires Online.

Buying these games will not benefit the developer in any way. The only way to keep the dream alive is to fund Wildman on Kickstarter, something Taylor seems almost ashamed to ask for.

The full feature on PCGamesN is quite heartbreaking; do give it a squizz.