Just weeks after its release, Stray Souls: Stolen Memories, a much anticipated Indie game developed by a small team from the United Kingdom, has sadly seen its development come to an end due to nasty cyberbullying and low sales. The project was going on for several months by a small 3-person team, and was quite popular among Indie videogame fans in the UK. Unfortunately, right after the game’s launch it became the target of malicious cyberbullying attacks, which the developers were not able to recover from. The team was also disappointed by the low sales, which were not enough to cover the expenses of development, and thus decided to pull the plug on the project.
Amidst the tragedy, many UK Indie fans have come to support the team behind Stray Souls: Stolen Memories. A local Indie gaming conference has started a fund for the team to help them financially, while a crowdfunding campaign has been created on the team’s behalf. It’s unclear if the crowdfunding campaign will be successful, but it’s nonetheless heartening to see many Indie fans coming together to show support and try to help these brave developers.
The episode has sparked an important debate about the future of Indie gaming in the UK and elsewhere. The need to protect developers from cyberbullying is a major concern, and many advocates of the Indie game scene have called for better measures to be put in place in order to protect developers from malicious attacks or other incidents threating the life of their projects. It’s a key topic of discussion that will be discussed in upcoming Indie gaming events.
The Stray Souls: Stolen Memories was set to be an exciting and innovative experience. A horror game blending exploration, puzzles and conversations, the game was expected to bring a level of creativity that was too seldom seen in Indie games. The team had worked hard to bring the game to life and it’s a major loss for the local Indie community, and the world in general, with the project now shut down.
It’s a sad day for the UK Indie scene as the Stray Souls: Stolen Memories project has been terminated due to cyberbullying and low sales. It’s a complex issue, with a plethora of causes and implications that will take time to discuss and assess, but it remains an important area of discussion. It’s also a reminder to the importance of standing together to support our Indie developers, and of the dangers they face throughout their development cycles.