Bear Simulator developer quits due to “drama”

Bear Simulator has not exactly had a smooth development cyclesince it appeared on Kickstarter back in April 2014, even though it raised $100,000 USD.

In September 2014 the game’s creator John Farjay simply vanished and the game was thought to be dead in the water. Then in March 2015 there was an update saying it was “very much alive”. The game was eventually released on 26 February this year.

Two days ago the game received an update to apply a few fixes but that appears to be the end of development. On the Kickstarter page this morning there’s an update to say that there will be no future content development for the game.

Despite having a “Mostly Positive” ranking on Steam, it looks like all the “drama” has sucked any enjoyment out of the development process for Farjay. His statement reads:

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.

It was really fun making the game, trailers, updates, websites, tutorials, blog posts and stuff, hopefully you all liked those things.

Am glad most of you guys are happy with the game though, unless you were just being nice >.> Really must thank you for the in-depth emails and comments, learned lots. Hopefully the game lived up to your expectations and had enough content to explore.

Will make another game update with Kickstarter Island included and some other fixes, leave a comment below of what you really want fixed. Will work on fixes and features until you’re all happy and content then stop.

Must be doing this PC game dev thing wrong because it is way too hard to stay happy and productive.

There’s no doubt game development is tough, and when a game is being crowdfunded, everything is out in the open.