discussion Why do developers abandon games?

[SupreTiso]

They lost motivation mostly

 

[MattShizzle]

Some of them it's just because they're cunts who milked all they could then decided that was all they could do. Though some do a rushed crappy ending instead, like the fucktard who did Milky Shitty (name eludes me)

 

[Pantherdox]

Too ambitious with their titles that it just becomes unfinished.

Some of them gets too overwhelmed that they just resort to running away with the money.

First point is usually core. Usually hard to get those sorts of issues with Japanese Games.

 

[MattShizzle]

Icstor was the twunt who was dev of Milky Shitty.

 

[PervyGod]

There's multiple reasons for why it happens.

1. Dev tried to create game for living and it didn't breakthrough so they abandon it.
2. Dev no longer having time to create the game that they made as a hobby.
3. Dev having health issues that force them to abandon the game.
4. Dev losing their passion for the project, due to negative non-constructive feedback they get. Have seen this happen few times.
5. Dev gets in legal trouble with the game they are making.
6. Dev gets stalker that is mad because dev didn't include their specific kink, that didn't fit the game at all, in it. Stalker proceeds to threaten dev with doxxxing them because of that. I've seen this happen once at least, could have happened more.

 

[partymanimal]

Aside from funding being obvious a lot can cause this.
1. Personal life events
2. depression
3. lack of interest or lots of bad reviews
4. too much spam from people trying to change his vision

its not always cut and dry and a lot of devs are doing this as passion projects and dont receive much monetization.

 

[elfieeven]

There's multiple reasons for why it happens.

4. Dev losing their passion for the project, due to negative non-constructive feedback they get. Have seen this happen few times.

Or because their personal tastes have changed.

AVNs are a multi year process and at that time scale people can and do change. This is why I am a strong believer in not allowing the audience to guide the story. Taking in feedback is great, but at the end of the day the dev really needs to care for the characters to see it through.

 

[Lumi-dev]

As a developer, it's probably money. But most people here jump to the negative conclusion about money because they have no idea about game development. When I say money, I mean a lack of funds to justify the upscaled production of the game, which can no longer justify the costs. When you first start as a dev, it's 99/100 cases a hobby. That hobby grows, and you start earning some money. Let's say the game makes 50% of the money you put into production back. If your game costs 100 dollars a month to make an update, you get 50 back. That's 50 dollars for a hobby, no big deal. If you're on a normal income, that's doable.

Now, let's say your game is upscaled and costs 1000 dollars a month to make, and you earn 500, so now it costs you 500 dollars a month to keep producing. Many developers never see their game making any profits, only increasing losses, even if their subscriber counts increase. The increasing costs might still be at the same ratio as the income, but in absolute terms, they can no longer afford to sustain development.

Of those developers who do make some money (me being one of them), most (and again including me) work for de facto less than minimum wage. The number of hours sunk into each update isn't worth the money most of us earn from game development. So, it remains a personal project that, in the best of cases, pays for itself and maybe accumulates a little money that can be invested in better hardware.

Only a tiny sliver of bad actor devs make it big and then start to slow development to leech off their subs. Most of us never reach this stage, and of those that do, only a minority are these bad-faith developers. They do attract a lot of attention, though, but unfortunately, it rubs off on normal developers as well.

 

[Unknownadd]

Money is a very practical reason.

Another one would be passion or drive getting exhausted and burn out. Making a game involves implementing systems and a storyboard into some sort of engine. That engine might have limitations or requirements that make transforming the vision difficult or cumbersome if the team is small. Sometimes working out the problems to make what they want happen is just too complicated that a developer gives up or makes compromises. Compromise enough and it stays from 'what they want to make' and they burn out and lose interest.

A similar vein is if the project gets overly complicated over time and the dev gets sick of it. Scope creep happens all the time and sometimes if you're facing down a bloated mess that has bugs the dev will 'call it quits' and just close the project as completed or abandoned 'as is' to move on.

All very sad state of affairs.

 

[Wannabe]

Not that I know all that much about it, but seems to me that developing a VN or a game requires a lot of time, and time is your most valuable possession. So, game development is an investment of time as well as talent, and the aimed for return on that investment usually is revenue (money, income, etc.). If it's a labor of love or just something the developer enjoys doing in spare time (whatever "spare" time might mean), I'd expect the VN or game would be completed before it ever gets posted. That's how I'd do it, anyway. Most of what we see on LC, though, are developers trying to make money with their time and talent. They get a page on one of the subscription sites and post a demo to introduce potential supporters to their game(s) and hopefully capture their interest enough to get paid subscriptions. Then they'll post updates regularly or occasionally, stretching it out, so to speak, to keep the subscription revenue stream flowing as long as possible. If the follower count drops (or they never get any followers to begin with) or the income isn't worth the time and effort anymore for whatever reason, games get abandoned. Legal issues or personal problems could interrupt things, too. Some of these developers have companies with partners or employees, but I suspect most of them don't. They're independent, pretty much working by themselves and maybe sometimes contracting some tasks out to other developers if the income is good enough. Bottom line is bottom line: there's no real obligation to finish a project if it's no longer worth the time.

 

[Tisty]

Maybe the amount of revenue they get is not satisfied enough for the dev to continue developed the game. A lot of dev even after abandoned the game will not officially announced it and try to milk it as much as possible without shutting down the donation page

 

[MasterUser]

Most game I saw is because of loli in game. It can boil down to no money because loli or hatred from others

 

[Gaminggxz]

Honestly this current dev for "deathable" just keeps on making release dates and never actually do anything it's pretty sad since him game is actually rlly good