[2019] An Unbiased Look at the Health of the Game

To preface this I will say that I've invested about 350 hours in this game. That doesn't qualify me as an expert on anything I'll be speaking about but it does show you that I at least have some skin in the game.

Simply put: This game is most likely dying or at least has missed its chance to take advantage of the momentary popularity it saw at launch and is now reducing to a small hardcore player base.

The statistics are as follows: This game lost half of its initial player base a month after launch. This is not weird at all since this happens to most viral games. However, it has continued to lose between 28-45% since then (most recently 28, so the loss % is decreasing which is a good sign for stabilization). That is by definition a dying game. In the event that none of this loss is correlated to the actions of developers, the community or the learning curve of the game then you can expect this game to eventually plateau at a core player base.

This is great and usually happens with most niche games but this game is a little different. Since this game has no micro transactions that means the developers are entirely reliant upon new unique players joining the game in order to continue making money. I'm unsure of how much money they are currently sitting on -- it might give them a lot of runway (this might be supported by the developers admitting they will NOT hire any new employees to cut down on costs as long as possible) -- but with the nature of the game it means that there is a timer on the lifespan of this game. Either the developers find ways to bring in new players, raise funds through crowdfunding, or the game will eventually die due to lack of funds to support the creators and upkeep costs.

With this in mind I will add: People are right to start becoming concerned about the lack of transparency, content and dwindling player base. They can see the end of the runway pretty clearly and know that it's only a matter of time. Unfortunately the developers have chosen to approach the game's new found success with their original strategy of developing it as a side hobby while living their regular lives. This is COMPLETELY within their right to do so but it is not a great indicator for the longevity of the game.

https://steamcharts.com/app/629760#All