Another game that gets abandoned because the dev didn't make a few thousands a month during the first few updates. You can't expect to get a massive following from the little content this game had, especially when you already have an abandoned game. That's a big warning sign.
That's not really how it happened. It's not that they didn't hit a few thousand dollars. It's that they didn't even hit $100. That's a big difference.
A dev going... "Well, we only managed to reach $700 a month after a few months and we were going for $3,000 a month and this was disappointing so I don't think this is gonna work out." is very different from a dev going "The project couldn't even get the most basic level of support to reach the first $100 a month milestone after several months."
It's a major investment in time and energy, and money to develop a game. It's not like you just slap a few lines of code together, and add a couple of pictures in an afternoon. It's hundreds and hundreds of hours of work for only minutes of gameplay.
The world does not stop around a developer in some magical bubble in order to develop a game. It would be great if it did, but you know the rent doesn't pay itself. Nor does the fridge fill itself with food. Nor can a dev take their garden hose over to their gas tank to fill it up.
Missing the first milestone can be very discouraging.
A bigger dev not being able to cash in at that $10,000 peaking at only $3,000 is not gonna put the game in great danger. They are definitely making enough for development to pay for itself at this point, and have a little extra.
A little dev not being able to cash in at that first $100 a month milestone can be catastrophic. The game is definitely not paying for itself at this point. The hours worked, and money spent on assets is gonna leave a dev in the hole big time.
Many games out there now are pretty much pirated from day 1. This really hurts a dev's ability to generate new supporters. I'm a pirate too, and I love to pirate games don't get me wrong. I have been pirating longer than I have been developing. Pirates gonna pirate.
This game would have had better chances I think if it just got the word out better, and had Patreon too instead of just a subscribe star. A lot of devs make more money on Patreon, and few supporters use subscribe star. Next time around I hope this dev uses Patreon, and works on that marketing a little better. They definitely got some talent, but it's rough out there to get noticed in a sea of games.
