Board Thread:Update Hype/@comment-28592066-20170106122430/@comment-28592066-20170111083419

Agreed. #1 is not viable, he'll get a heart attack at some point... I still think his best course is to stop developing the game and start leading his own game development team.

About that free issue - Unless the final game itself is released for free (only possible if it raises a huge amount of money on kickstarter), you can't really give "nearly-complete" builds for free, why would anyone pay for the real game then? Most kickstarter games use the same strategy - The developers send periodic mails to all backers, allowing them to keep track of the development. Some tiers usually give you early access - so I believe that some backers and/or patrons will continue to receive these builds, but they wouldn't be there for anyone to download.

Regarding my Monkey Island example - it's an example of what happens when a game is taken from its creator. This adventure game was created in the 90's by a person called Ron Gilbert while working at Lucasarts (the game division of Lucasfilm). This game was always supposed to be a trilogy and Ron supervised the development of installments 1 and 2, but since it was work for hire and Lucasarts were the copyright holders, they've decided to remove him from the project and continued on their own to release further games, which fans usually agree were not nearly as good as the first two. The original ending of the story was never revealed, with the only reference being a blog post on Ron's blog stating that he wants to obtain the copyrights and finish the trilogy the way his original vision was, but it's unlikely to happen. This is not the only example - so yes, I strongly believes that a game must never be taken or even given away completely by its creator.