Valid take. A Town Uncovered was a game I've started 9 years ago and it was the first ever project I worked on. I knew nothing about the importance of planning a project, feature creep, and I was literally learning how to do things as I was making it. Cool ideas were out of my wheelhouse and by the time I knew how to code it, there was too much content for it to be feasible.
It was the singular project that made me hate being a game dev, the only reason I didn't "abandon" it sooner was because I felt like I owed people to continue working on it. Most of it, especially the last few years were mentally painful. Until I finally decided to finish the game as best I could do without having to commit to something I hated for another x amount of years.
Yeah, it's not a perfect ending and the me from 9 years ago would've hated it too. But I believe it was the right decision for myself as a game dev and it's at least something rather than ACTUALLY not having a conclusion. THAT would be the definition of abandonment.
It was one of those "can't people tell I really hated developing for this game, why are they still supporting it". I was pretty vocal and it wasn't a secret that I really just didn't wanna do it. So yeah, I'd rather pursue something I'm super excited, passionate, and proud of, like Sugar Service than some amateur project I made 9 years ago that so happened to find some luck and success within the community.
I acknowledge that without ATU, I wouldn't be able to make Sugar Service, so I thank it for that but I'm not sorry that I decided to call it quits earlier than it needed. I've taken all the mistakes I've learnt from ATU and have and will continue to put it into Sugar Service's development. I've planned the game out and designed it in a way that makes me motivated and has a clear end game.
I'm sorry for not giving the ATU that we envisioned together but I'm putting my happiness and mental health before that.
"can't people tell I really hated developing for this game, why are they still supporting it" - Ummm.... No. People can't see in your head, and most people don't really care about the person behind it. That isn't meant as an insult, it is just a reality. I guess that's the best possible outcome at this point - but really, there are no winners here; still, as you laid out, it could have been worse. Just checked- game was put on steam almost 4 1/2 Years ago, so basically "halfway in" at this point, since it isn't too recent, you get a pass here. It is sad, because I really liked it (def. in my top 5, if not 3 in this genre) and held back playing it for some time, to not burn out on content drip. I feel kinda burned here, but I understand your where you are coming from. I don't think there's going to be support for your new projects from me for the time being (still wish you luck and success, but I'd rather wait and see the finished product before investing in it). It'd be nice if you decided in the future, after taking a break from this game, that you revisit it with fresh ideas and improved competence and confidence. But that's not a decision for today.
Absolutely fair, hopefully we can produce a finished product that you'd be willing to try out in a few years. As for ATU, I may come back to it every once in a while to do some minor clean up on some parts, like making certain scenes more grounded but I highly doubt I'll have any drive or motivation to actually improve it in a noteworthy way. Nothing that requires a replay of the whole game.
To me, I'd rather spend my time working on the NEXT great project instead of trying to salvage (in my eyes) a big mess of scraps, clunkily put together with super glue and glitter. I'm happy just having it sat in the garage as an occasional reminder of where I started from and that it gave me the experience to create better things.
I think most people, if asked to instead of working on a new, exciting project that would be better than the last, they should try and improve the work they did 10 years ago when they were fresh faced, green, and learning the fundamentals. They'd scoff at the idea, it just doesn't have a single appealing aspects to it. And that's not towards you specifically, I just mean in general, we sometimes forget how soul-sucking backtracking is, in art, games, work, life, whatever. Everyone wants to feel like we're moving forward and not back.
I appreciate you having ranked ATU so highly on your personal favorites, I wouldn't even rank that game in my top 20. Which is good for me personally, it means my standards for a game I can create is still sky high.
