discussion Why do developers abandon games?

[Noneless]

Why do developers abandon games?

Lack of money, lack of motivation, lack of mental health, lack of life (figuratively and literaly)

 

[MattShizzle]

A lot of times they leave Fuck95 because of the assholes, even if they keep working on it...

 

[azlocs]

Burn out, stress, lack of monetary motivation, being a fapper with 0 ambition

 

[MattShizzle]

[Post Removed]

"Some" of the games from the restricted section - a lot they don't and they are VERY ban happy. Yeah, they have a better search function with the filters - would be great if that was here. They also get the non restricted games quicker, but that's because they are probably the biggest site of that sort with a shit ton of uploaders, while this site is rather small with only a few. There they ban for everything, here from all I've seen in over a year you really have to be a twunt to get banned.

 

[blob69420]

I read this on F95 a while ago, and so far it has had a near 100% correctness rate: If a developer announces a rework, the game will get abandoned.

Reworks are almost invariably a huge waste of time, and also usually misguided if the game already has a large following. Obviously the game must be decent if it already has a large following.

 

[User_80256]

Statistics on island of pleasure:
17,643 total games
4,460 abandoned,
i.e. 25.3%

 

[jayyou]

i think a lot of them get burned out especially if its a first time dev

 

[User_80256]

i think a lot of them get burned out especially if its a first time dev

Sometimes it's better to abandon a project than to spend years on something that has obviously become a corpse, and a corpse at a high level of decay. An example is Ring of Lust, the project has been dragging on since 2018, the last couple years the developer just doesn't know what to do with the game's story - it's a clear case of writer's block. But still, every 3-4 months tiny (for 4-5 minutes of gameplay) updates are released that do absolutely nothing for game development (story progression, character development). Or Happy Summer - here I can't stay within the bounds of a literary speech at all....

 

[Rebel 357]

I feel burnt out, not because of monetary reasons. I do free and open-source games after all. There's just little hope that gaming will change for the better. I've lost a lot of motivation to continue the fight for gamers and video games.

 

[Siwodnenw]

Because quitters quit.

 

[IceCreamParty]

Hi to all. In my case I'm about to finish my second game and start the third one, so I don't know what it's like to abandon a game. But yes, I must say that many times I've had to postpone updates because I've had jobs that I can't refuse.

I'm austere, so I taught myself RenPy and Koikatsu. I made VN and now Sandbox, by trial and error, "inventing" ways of coding.

I have no money but imagination to spare, so that won't make me quit.
I don't update on F95 anymore, it's a forum where most are shits as a person. My games are not popular, I don't care either because I love them and defend them to death haha. I mean, I fight with all the haters.

 

[scdev]

Perhaps the game may not meet the expected player demand or revenue targets, leading the team to reassess its priorities. Other times, a game may have technical issues or design flaws that make it difficult to continue development or maintain.

 

[Abere Lucifer]

I've known a few Devs who Abandoned their games because they couldn't emotionally handle the gaming communikty and they weren't ready for it. The other reason is money. A lot of new devs don't realize that less than 1% of AVN make a $1,000 a month or higher and only around 10% make even a $100 a month. There's a few other reason but those are the top 2 I've seen.

 

[elfieeven]

I'll add "not writing a story they're invested in" and "not having characters they actually like" to the pile. You need an incentive to keep going when times get tough for whatever reason. Be wary of any dev who changes things too often because of what readers want.

 

[Crpapjda]

Everyone here says "money", and that could be a very important part of it. I never develop any game, but could think of a point were the game stop being profitable and you have to abandon it.
Maybe the interest falls short, from the players and the developers themselves, rendering the game in to a chore more than a passion project. I would also abandon at that point.

But also... people is really butthurt out there, and they could turn into a pain to deal with

 

[badguy123]

I always kind of assumed it’s just the dev losing interest and being unable to keep n working on it. But that’s probably just because I have a hard time with follow through.

 

[User_106373]

I think there can be more than one reason, but money certainly, or loss of interest but also, often, in major gaming creation, sometimes it can be lack of support. The game can be realised as being not worth progressing because of maybe bad plot, or just the supporters or investors pull out if they feel the game won't succeed.

 

[Shirobaka]

In most cases i think its because of the money, but i think lack of ideas or negative feedback / unabillity of accepting negative feedback are big reasons too.
And i think many new developers underestimate the amount of work/time that is needed to work on a game.

 

[Spammy]

Another point is that the devs think they can earn a quick dollar and only realize over time how much work is behind such a game.

 

[MattShizzle]

Another point is that the devs think they can earn a quick dollar and only realize over time how much work is behind such a game.

And usually when it's for that it's not a very good game anyway.