discussion Why do developers abandon games?

[lcstb]

I think a lot of people who start developing games expect to be raking in the dough and after a while when reality hits they start to loose interest.
For those that succeed to make enough money, probably no longer having new ideas to continue the game.

 

[Deleted member 31]

LOL, everyone here posting they flake over money.
Building rep as a dev takes a long time, and you lose it in a heartbeat, and once it's gone, it's not likely fans will trust you again with their hard earned support. Abandoning games isn't a sustainable business model.

The real reason many projects stop, IMHO:

1. No one realizes just how much of an effort it is to make one of these things. They'll eat up every free minute of your and demand more. I became a dev because I loved VN and I wanted to contribute, but truth of the matter is, I hardly have any time to play anything anymore.
2. The hate is something else. You can't imagine how many people will go out of their way to find you and tell you just how absolutely horrible you are and everything you do is, and how much better the world would be without you in it. That can wear a person down until they hate opening up their socials and just want to walk away.
3. Biting off more than you can chew really is a thing. You wanna do everything, put every good idea you have in, but realistically, you can't, and if you're not careful, you can find yourself at at a point where it starts to look like you will never finish this project in your lifetime, and that can be an overwhelming sensation.

Now, I'm sure there's some that are just in it for the money, but those rarely make it past one or two releases, and you can usually tell it's going nowhere from the low effort, cookie cutter quality. Honestly, it's impossible to put the effort in to make one of these things for an extended time if you don't love doing it first. It's just, it doesn't always love you back.

 

[Naxos]

sometimes it's because of bullying by users who download for free.

I can't say you're wrong in some cases, though I'd guess in 90-99% of those case that happens because the dev doesn't know what he/she wants to do or they misjudge the audience they're targeting or they outright lie about what they're doing.

There is a very very teeny tiny pool of devs that are just straight up trolls as well.

I'd say in no particular order.
Money - thought they'd be the next big thing and barely get anything.
To stop the hate
Lose interest
Run out of ideas or direction for their story.

 

[lewder321]

probably got a new high paying job or they make a new game with new patreon account

 

[Deleted member 108656]

Yeah I can't imagine these games really being much income

 

[XPS3]

They may feel frustrated with the way thing's are coming out or decide to just take a different direction with development.

 

[beast_boy23]

Why does god give me his hardest battles?

 

[jaws00]

Sometimes it seems like they just get bored. Really annoying, especially when you see a string of abandoned projects and the dev currently working on another new one.

 

[Delto]

Lack of interest, lack of profit or lack of free time for development

 

[Lola Adjani]

I think the most common reason for a "1st time developer" to abandon a title is complexity of the project.

So many users demand "choices that matter", creators often feel compelled to cater to those demands.

When the dev realizes the exponential increase of the workload with each choice, the project can become overwhelming.

 

[RonLancaster]

The post nut clarity finally hits them

 

[RJErwin]

it can be various of reasons, some are more positive (at least towards payers) like health issue, get drafted, i know some that were blackmailed and doxxed, some are more nefarious like it was all just a scam, make shit with little content, garner as much money as they can abandoned project, insert excuse, delete patreon or whatever they use, change name and redo it all over again.
fucked up their own game because they want to please all fans with all content, which sadly a lot still does it, good thing for me, my money safe.
i only support game that were finished.

 

[Ghost129]

Out of ideal, short money, hater, bored

 

[kikomascado]

I think many devs don't really like making porn games, and also don't have experience in programming or writing, so when the game made enough money (or didn't make it at all) and they are facing difficulties in progressing the game, they just vanish inteasde of communicating as to not receive the backlash.

 

[AnaisNon]

A lot of good answers here, but there's one big one I didn't see anyone else mention.

Often a dev has a clear idea of a scene or two, or know that they want to make a game of a certain type with a sort of established opening. Say, sissification, or harem, or incest, or transformation, for example, all have this fairly clear path up to a point, and after that, you need to come up with your own actual story, and bring the thing to a satisfying conclusion. I think a LOT of devs get lost in the weeds at that point - that the really hard storytelling part. Some games just stop development there, right away, others just kind of wander about with unsatisfying narratives, or kind of try to change into something else at that point, and eventually get abandoned.

 

[maralina]

99% of the time the reason is cash, for the other 1% there are countless reasons to list

 

[MattShizzle]

Don't make as much from it as they thought, lose interest, too busy with other things, possible health problems up to and including dying...

 

[stangnomez]

It's a lot more work than it looks like

 

[Runescape771]

sometimes they burned out

 

[barbarella2021]

I would say there are three main causes that I've seen: not as much money as anticipated, a lot more work or complexity than they originally realized (or they became too ambitious with the scope of their game during development and fell behind), the heartless critiques that often show up on forums. I don't mean honest reviews or criticisms of the elements of a game - the vitriol that can flame up sometime can be loud.

Also, if Pat decides that he doesn't like them, they often go away fast, but that probably falls under money...