Stormside would have been dead either way. I dont really get how people cannot understand it - he did not abandon Stormside FOR another game, he abandoned Stormsides. Period.
And then starts another game, because he wants to develop another game.
- Thread starter Atemsiel
- Start date
And then starts another game, because he wants to develop another game.
He has burnout and is not currently able to continue something as complicated as Stormside, which he intentionally made insanely complex because he did not want to compromise on his artistic vision.
For the near future there is a choice between him developing nothing at all, and him working on a simple, nearly kinetic story. If he didn't start a new project now, there would be a good chance that he never returns to development. Stormside would very likely be dead. His getting back on the horse immediately -- only now a pony instead of an Arabic race horse -- is the best thing that could happen for all of us who want to see Stormside continued one day. It means he will very likely return to Stormside after a while, when he has collected his forces and feels frustrated about the new story being deficient w.r.t. to his original artistic vision.
Best possible outcome: He finishes both games and they are both great, although they are not sufficiently similar to ensure that whoever loves one will like the other as well.
Let me guess... you are a long-term supporter and mega fan? Because I've rarely seen this level of rationalization and gaslighting to explain the dev's totally unprofessional & irresponsible behavior of stringing along his patrons for 18 months before bothering to let them know he had abandoned Stormside.
The whole "artistic vision" nonsense is a total canard at this point. How many times was it repeated in this thread by Atemsiel and his team that the choice was between Stormside and nothing? That his "artistic vision" demanded complicated story branching and multiple routes for every LI? That anyone who argued for simplification was directly trying to undermine that vision? And that Stormside was a labor of love that would continue regardless of any financial consideration?
"Burnout" is a far too convenient excuse to explain the outcome here. In fact, the likely explanation for the switch is that the new game requires less development time and will therefore be more profitable, which is the true driving force not vision. Keep supporters on the hook while dangling an eventual return to Stormside is the goal.
Most probable outcome: the new game is eventually abandoned just like Stormside.
I'll honestly never understand this whole debates, wether in this thread or with other games.
Yes, he abandoned Stormisde. Yes, he went silent for way too long. Yes, that sucks.
If you don't like the explanation - thats fine. Put him on your blacklist, never touch his games again and don't give him any money. Thats totally fine.
But this endless arguments about the whole situation feel so ... completely pointless to me. Artemsiel made his decision. You wont change that. Accept it and give it a chance or don't and move on.
If other people accept it and trust it, thats their decision, their money and their time. Who am I to go around telling people what they can and cannot do with their own money/time? Why would that even matter to me in the first place. It's none of my business.
And if the new game is abandonded as well, then it is. So what. Then it gets added to the pile of hundreds of other games that have the same fate and we will play one of the dozen other new games started in the meantime.
Just to be clear, I really like Stormside and I'd wish it were continued. But its not, so I'll move on and give the other game some time. If its good, I'll play it. If not, I won't. Easy as that.
I am neither a supporter of Atemsiel nor a mega fan. I am just someone who is happy to get very high quality games for free, and someone who might easily get into a mental state where they behave pretty much like Atemsiel did. I won't hold Atemsiel to a higher standard than myself, and I also don't hate myself for not being perfect, and don't hate other people for having the same faults that I do.
I was happy with the idea that development of Stormside would continue slowly until the developer realizes finishing with so much branching is unrealistic and either abandons it completely or finds a way to continue with less branching. I hoped it would be the latter (which would have been perfectly fine with me; I don't really want the branching), and I hoped if it was the former, it would be further in the future. So I was disappointed when Atemsiel went AWOL. It looked like game over forever.
No matter how angry you and some other people are about Atemsiel (for some reason the anger seems to be coming mostly from people who were not paying and are trying to rationalize not paying; not sure why as I myself have absolutely no problem with leeching; hating non-perfect developers because you are leeching makes no sense whatsoever), Atemsiel returning and doing some development work is objectively better than Atemsiel returning and doing no development work at all, which in turn is better than Atemsiel playing dead. There is currently a good chance that Atemsiel will release what he produced before the burn-out, as promised. And there is even a good chance that after some months or years on a simpler project he will return to Stormside. (That's how you get out of a burn-out. Not by doing nothing, and not by giving 100%, but by taking it easy.) Or if he doesn't, there is a chance that he will publish the models and whatever material others would need to continue his work. The latter would be the worst outcome, not just because a continuation by someone else almost never happens, but also because even if it does, it will very likely be far inferior, or at least very different. But at least others would be able to create nice scenes with our favorite love interests. Scenes that would mostly fit into the story. That's still better than nothing.
Juerhullycin
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You are right. The glazing here is absolutely hilarious. It's worse than any Japanese monster Bukkake movie. Hopeful Atemsiel doesn't drown in all the cum.
AnyName'llDo
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- Feb 12, 2018
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Good game. I only discovered it because of Atemsiel's new game. If this never gets finished, there's still quite a bit here to appreciate. Thanks.
Zogg
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EvilMonkey
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this game was a blessing im ngl. it's unfortunate that is has to be abandoned but I get it considering the amount of content that would've ended up being needed with all of the choices.
All good tho, glad you've made a new game (studio hearts)!
All good tho, glad you've made a new game (studio hearts)!
The takeaway from announcing on christmas that the game could be released before the end of the year then never releasing it 10+ months later is that he was lying about making the update even when he was still communicating. It's a bit more than just getting overwhelmed and things not going according to plan. It's beyond the point of talking about this already so if someone still wants to defend him at this point I think we should just ignore them.
Not that the lack of content or communication should surprise anyone, but didn't Atem say that he was going to "see about getting the unreleased Stormside content packaged up and released" two months ago? Any news on that or are we just radio silent again?
Meiri
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No, I think that comes after he releases the first chapter of his new project, which I don't know if he has already done since I am not following.
Honestly, Stormside is on hold whether you see that with optimism or just consider it dead already, I wouldn't expect anything short or mid-term about it, Devs working on two projects never ends well and so far he seems to be focused on the new one first.
Yee, I was asking because he released the first bit of Studio Hearts in mid September.
I'm not really holding out any hope for Stormside. Still, and I don't really know why, but for some reason I'm a bit disappointed that he hasn't put this last bit out yet. Silly of me.
Meiri
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Well, I think if he isn't going to continue working on it in a reasonable timeframe, I would rather he just moved on.
Releasing more unfinished content for Stormside isn't gonna make anyone happy, better to move on until he actually decides he's ready to work on it, and if that never happens then at least he doesn't create false expectations for the people that liked Stormside.
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maxthruster
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- Oct 4, 2025
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Oh, Studio Hearts is his game? I saw some screenshots from it the other day and... woof. It did not look promising.
Amakuo
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- Jun 17, 2021
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It would make me happy. The lack of future content does not invalidate my enjoyment of past content, and I see no good reason to let the update he’s already almost finished go to waste. I can read, so getting one last content drop doesn’t create any false expectations as far as I’m concerned. He’s made it clear that Stormside was going on indefinite hiatus and potentially permanent cancellation after that. Seems easy to understand.
Meiri
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Well, good for you, enjoy it when it releases. I won't even try it, I have plenty of unfinished games here, and I would rather not spend time on something that it's clearly not being developed anytime soon.
Meabe37
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Yeah what an insane downgrade. Fucking sad really. Oh well.