its usually a dead give away when a brand new dev comes out of the blue , pops what can barely be called a game intro ...and instantly starts a donation page ......worse is they leave a trail of unfinished games in their wake ..constantly abandoning or placing them on indefinite hold ...til the donations drop off ...then here comes another barely an intro game .or rehash with no new content ..rinse repeat
This is why I personally don't see any issue with aspiring creators coming along & finishing abondoned games like this for practice, or just for the sake of finishing it. Sure, it's the original creator's IP, & yes, I do typically argue in defense of creators, especially given all the flak they get from pirates like us that often contribute nothing to their hard work, aside from criticism & demands & Yes, I have argued in the past that supporting a creator on Patreon does not entitle the supporters to a finished game, as they are DONORS offering SUPPORT to an artist, much like people whom toss change into a busker's / street musician's open guitar case, or like investors, where that investment buys them the corresponding patreon perks, not customers buying a finished product. & I still stand by that.
That said, there is a clear difference between a genuine creator that is passionate about their art, or is at least dedicated enough to make sure that they produce something that their supporters would like, vs a clueless hack that see's slapping together a 0.1 or 0.2 build as a get rich quick scheme. I mean if they have been working at it for a long time & eventually abandon it because they just can't do it anymore, (Health issues, life obligations, family, etc...), then that's fair & there are obviously higher priorities. That said, if it were ME in that spot, I'd finish writing out the story, maybe finish coding it & find someone else to turn the project over to for them to complete & they can keep whatever money it makes from there, because I feel I'd owe it to the fans.
That said, someone just starting a game, monetizing it & then deciding whether they continue based on if it's profitable enough for their liking is not only, in my view, an unfair tease for any fans that game does generate, but also reflects poorly on the creators in this community as a whole & harms them. If creator A, B & C are get rich hacks that decide to pull a pump & dump on a barely started game, it makes it harder for genuine creators X, Y & Z to get support because the community is spooked that those creators will do the same. & if creators D, E & F were genuine creators that had to abandon their game because D died, E's home was destroyed in a natural disaster & all F's time outside work is occupied with urgent family matters, they get dogpiled with "Hez a scammur" nonsense that A, B & C legitimately get because of the antics of those hacks. & that's unfair to them too.
So, having said all that, if someone wants to come along & hijack the incomplete projects that these hacks start, I enthusiastically say go for it because A, the damage these Hacks do to other honest creators doesn't warrant any sympathy or respect, B, Almost ALL of these hacks are too broke to afford a lawyer to begin with, let alone take any substantial action, Plus if they were stupid enough to think they'd be raking in the cash from a 0.1, they would also be stupid enough not to think ahead &7 register their copyright or trademark their IP, which means that it likely falls under public domain anyway, & C, the rare few that CAN afford to take legal action wouldn't care because the cost of fighting an international lawsuit of that magnitude, in money, time & work, (plus the cost to even identify the person taking over the game in the first place), would be insanely astronomical, (as in tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars). At which point, they'd have to be rich enough to not need any money from the game, so If they cared enough to carry out THAT fight, they would have finished the game.