Bear Sim dev quits project, explaining: ‘It’s too hard to stay happy and productive’

Crowdfunded title Bear Simulator has been abandoned by its creator, weeks after launching.

John Farjay raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter in early 2014 for the zoological simulation game, before subsequently bringing it to Steam Greenlight.

Bear Simulator released on February 26th and received a warm reception from players, hitting a 78 per cent positive review average on Steam.

However, Farjay has now proclaimed the title as ‘a lost cause’, withdrawing future support as a result of factors including an apparent “stigma against its name” and his own inability to develop the game further.

“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,” he wrote on Bear Simulator’s Kickstarter page.

“Plus [I’m] not skilled enough to make the game better than it currently is or write better updates than previously.”

Farjay also addressed the game’s release on Steam, which appears to have tracked under his expectations.

“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,” he lamented.

“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.”

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

While Farjay’s references to ‘drama’ and ‘stigma’ are yet to be explained by him, Kotaku has suggested that a recent PewDiePie video lambasting the game – and ending with YouTube celebrity Felix Kjellberg requesting a refund – may have contributed to an assumption of universal negative feedback. The video in question has over 2.5 million views, and has since been made private.

Farjay’s actions have divided opinion. Fellow developer Cliff Bleszinski tweeted in response to the news: “I have such mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the internet is mean. On the other, welcome to game development.”