Creator of horror game Summer of ’58 leaves games industry due to Steam refund policy
Emika Games, a developer of small horror games, has announced his retirement from game development “for an indefinite time.” He made the decision due to the Steam policy, which allows users to refund games after playing them for less than two hours. It left the developer with no profit.
Summer of ’58
Russian developer Aleksandr Reshetnikov (Emika Games) made the announcement on Twitter. He thanked all fans for support, saying that he needs time to collect his thoughts.
The reason behind his retirement is horror game Summer of ’58. Despite having positive reviews, a lot of people refund it because it lasts only 90 minutes. It means that, while many people love the game, Reshetnikov doesn’t earn enough money from it to create his next title.
Friends! Thank you for your support! I’m leaving game development for an indefinite time to collect my thoughts. pic.twitter.com/q93NxWjyUI
— EMIKA_GAMES (@EmikaGames) August 26, 2021
After the Emika Games dev shared his thoughts, he received a lot of support from other developers and players. It inspired the developer to write another post, saying that people’s positive messages “gave me something to think about.”
Reshetnikov also explained that he wants to create “games without artificially prolonged time,” so they would feel like short stories, similar to TV or films.
“I am not offended by those people who returned the game because they did not like it or because of technical problems. But if a person went through to the end and returned the game, it can be compared to the fact that he ate all the pizza, but he did not like it, and just returned the box and his money,” Reshetnikov wrote.
Prior to this announcement, the developer has been working on his new title From Day To Day. However, it is now unclear whether it will be finished.