I'm saying a game has to be financed in some way, unless you're some genius who can do every job alone. And usually, nobody comes in to help a project for free, or not for very long at the very least.
Now sure, the methods vary and pretending to release a version with all content accessible while it not being so is questionable at best.
But if you want an example of scammy attitude, you have devs posting vague promises and artworks on their Patreon but not putting out any new version of games for months or even years and still chasing in on people waiting for updates. Or you have devs promising the game will be for free and then stopping releasing free versions to make the game only avaliable for money after putting a huge cliffhanger that basically ruins your fun unless you pay.
I could go on, but I have better to do with my night.
well, that's not exactly scammy attitude. They are promising to release something but they haven't exactly given a date. just said they would, no lies there.
If someone is paying them to do something, if not delivered, the person can stop the payment anytime. The devs can be put on course if the payments stopped. You hold the strings, pull them.
Stopping to release free versions is also not as crappy coz well, it's in the future that the devs have done such a thing. They probably didn't realise at the time they started making the game on how much it was gonna cost in the future, so you can't really say that they promised you free games for life and they only gave you free games for 2 years.
that's not fair!
But this case is completely different! The devs of this game are outright lying and making the public waste their time. this is much worse in my opinion. The worst so far.!