Game That Raised $100,000 Is Ending Updates Soon Due to "Drama" and More

Back in 2014, nearly 4,000 people contributed more than $100,000 for a game in which you would play as a bear. The game, titled Bear Simulator of course, was developed and finally released in full just last month on Steam. Now, its developer, John Farjay, is calling it quits, announcing this week that he is planning one more update then walking away.

"Well, the game didn't have a great reception, has a stigma against its name, and there's plenty of other problems so making any updates or going further is basically a lost cause now," he said in an update to the game's Kickstarter page. "Plus not skilled enough to make the game better than it currently is or write better updates than previously."

Farjay said he was hoping the game's Steam release in February 2016 would go well, but says it came up short. Right now, the game has a "Mostly Positive" rating on the PC gaming platform, however. Farjay said he maybe should have only released it for backers and not through Steam.

According to Kotaku, YouTube's biggest star--PewDiePie--posted a less-than-enthusiastic video about Bear Simulator in which he "[gave] the game developer the finger after attempting to get a Steam refund for it." The video, which no longer appears to be available online, attracted more than 2.5 million views.

"Also don't want to deal with the drama anymore," he explained. "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," he added. "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."

One further update to Bear Simulator will add "Kickstarter Island" and some additional fixes. Farjay said he plans to continue to work on fixes as needed, but after that, he will step away.

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

This situation is drawing comments from other industry figures, including Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski.

What do you make of this Bear Simulator situation? Let us know in the comments below.