From what fans of the game have said, he's been acting pretty bad for a long time, even before the war, doing nothing for long months (over a year) and always collecting money. I am totally in solidarity with the people who are suffering from the war, but remember: If this dev needs money and is in a difficult situation, there are many other ways to receive donations and people will help him, but using war as an excuse for bad practices is a horrible thing.
You know, it's pretty easy to end up going a shit path. I should know, I've had it happen.
You just end up in a wrong way, figure you could just make an exception, to help you get back on your feet. After all, you're not doing good right now, so it's no big deal, right ? So you do. You take that exception. And the next, just to really settle back in a better space, you know. And before you know it, it's been way too long, and the exception ended up being the norm. That slope is unglodly easy to slip up on.
Now, am I saying that Fresh Mulan is 100% innocent like someone else here seems to be accusing me of saying ? No.
What I'm saying, is that there's no way to know why for certain. Because there could be a hundred reasons as to why. But that doesn't change people from deciding they're right because they want to be pissed off and want to feel all big calling out an evildoer. Which is fucking pathetic by the way.
People who were paying have a right to be pissed. And they cal also retract their subscription. Sure, they won't get their money back, but they also tend to forget that there's no contract binding the dev to them. The dev has no obligation to do anything. In fact, Patreon, Subscribestar and the likes are marely a middle-man between the fans and the dev. If fans could hand devs cash directly, that would be the exact same.
Supporting someone on any crowndfunding is basically a gamble. People chose to put their trust on a project, with no garantee it'll pay off in the end. It could be a waste of time and money as much as it could lead to something.
And remember that more often than not, those games are delivered for free anyway. So. Let's say for example that the game gets finished, and still delivered for free for everyone.
Fan A paid, monthly, $10 for the whole duration, let's say 3 years.
3 years, means 36 month, so that makes $360 total. Fan A paid $360 for a game he can get for free anyway. But Fan A doesn't get mad about that because the game got finished. He doesn't ask the dev for his money back. All he got in the end was to see every update a little early, and give his opinion on some polls from time to time.
See where I'm going ? Sure, it sucks to have your money taken away with nothing in return, but the basic point of view is wonky to begin with.
I'm not saying "Well suck it" to people who paid. Just, remember that it's not like there was no risk at all to begin with. You gambled, you lost. That sucks, but that's how it goes with
all crowdfunding. You are
never guaranteed to get anything for it, and most times it's
completely optional to begin with. It's not a requirement for you to get the game 100% at the end. It's literally just a gesture to encourage someone.
But, when people get mad, they prefer to ignroe that fact and act like they have to get compensated because the dev is forced to. Because it makes their anger easier, more confortable to manage, when they decide it's not their fault at all. Shifting the blame to someone else is easier to deal with than admiting you took and risk that didn't pay off.