The developer of Bear Simulator has posted an update to Kickstarter announcing that he will stop development on his game. He earned $100,000 through the crowdfunding platform and released the title, but future support has been abruptly dropped.
It seems like we’re covering the crazy crashes of Kickstarter games and campaigns on almost a weekly basis. Here we are with another odd and problematic story.
Bear Simulator is a very silly game. Or, at least, a premise with a “working” version. The title, Kickstarted by Jon Farjay of his own by Farjay Studios, was met with a halfway decent reception on Steam upon release. It’s $14.99, it was supposed to offer constant updates, it has some problems but, overall, lets players walk around being a bear. Simulation successful.
It looks like Farjay came upon his decision to leave Bear Simulator to the un-updated wilderness as a result of a now private video from Pewdiepie. The massive YouTube celebrity played Bear Simulator and absolutely slammed the game.
Here’s a part what Farjay wrote on his last Kickstarter update.
Well the game didn’t have a great reception, has a stigma against it’s name and there’s plenty of other problems so making any updates or going further is basically a lost cause now. Plus not skilled enough to make the game better than it currently is or write better updates than previously.
Was really hoping the Steam release would go well but why would it, should have just gave the game to backers and not bother with Steam.
Also don’t want to deal with the drama anymore. Can’t ignore it because that causes more drama and can’t do anything about it because that causes more drama.
Farjay was a first-time developer working on a game alone. Of course the title wouldn’t be perfect, and the mostly positive reception on Steam suggests most gamers understood that.
Farjay says he’ll make an update for the promised Kickstarter Island, but that’s it after that.
As an outsider looking in, it’s great that Bear Simulator at least made it to a release form, regardless of whether or not it was really complete. It seems that Farjay took the harsh criticism a little too personally, though I admit that would likely affect me as well.
Do you think Farjay owes it to his supporters to keep going? Or, is it okay that he bows out now? Maybe he couldn’t bear it any longer. I’ll show myself out…