Developer has abandoned game

[aaronkw]

I checked this game developer's profile "fafa-fr" and they haven't been active in 2 years since they released this game. What's the point of a forum for feedback on the game if it's not maintained anymore? It is not great that someone can release a game and then abandon it entirely.

[Jellby]

This is not a forum for feedback, it's a forum for discussions between users.

For feedback, there's the bug (and suggestion) report system, and that's availably for anyone who would like to take over development, even if the original developer is missing.

[aaronkw]

Well maybe that needs to be more clear. There are plenty of posts in this game's forum where players are suggesting changes.

[Adrion]

Hi !
From BGA dev documentation :

If you want to take over an existing project first ask on the forum to see if the project is abandoned,

So yeah you're right to ask . I'm also looking to help. Maybe add some extensions if we manage to get some access to contribute.

[fruktansvärt]

Well maybe that needs to be more clear. There are plenty of posts in this game's forum where players are suggesting changes.

like a pink banner across each page with
"Forum rules
Please DO NOT POST BUGS on this forum. Please report (and vote) bugs on : https://boardgamearena.com/bugs"
something like that?

[aaronkw]

Thanks for your snarky reply fruktansvärt. Maybe you missed the part where bugs and suggestions mean nothing if the developer has abandoned the game. Or maybe the fact that:

Please DO NOT POST BUGS on this forum

with the url: https://boardgamearena.com/bugs

Mentions nothing about SUGGESTIONS. If you took the time to go through some of the older posts for this game, and counted the number of suggestions to improve the game, you'd perhaps realize that the mere fact that these posts exist, proves that the process is unclear. Also underscoring the fact that the official reporting system means NOTHING ANYWAY if the developer has disappeared.

[cowboy_dan]

Yeah I feel like if your initial post were worded differently, this could have turned into a useful discussion about finding a new developer for this game.

Having said that, there’s nothing I would change about Castles that BGA can do (yellow #6 isn’t something that can be changed), developer or not.

It plays well on mobile, you can undo your turn, there aren’t bugs. I’ve seen someone post about adding a go back half a turn but that didn’t get much support.

[fafa-fr]

I checked this game developer's profile "fafa-fr" and they haven't been active in 2 years since they released this game.

I haven't been active, indeed. I didn't have time anymore to spend on Castles of Burgundy, so I stopped because I thought it was (and I still think it is) in a very good shape, I worked hard to polish it and implement suggestions. But even if I haven't been active:
- I still receive bug/suggestion reports by email and read them all (almost all are rules mistakes or BGA website problems not related with the game code)
- I still check this forum from time to time (even if I don't log in), to see if something important needs to be done
- I haven't completely abandoned the idea to do a few last things when I have time: fix this bug and this bug, ask again to Alea / Stefan Feld (no answer the 1st time, maybe he just missed it) if it would be possible to implement a variant that uses yellow tile #6 from 1st edition and yellow tile #15 from 2nd edition (and implement it if they allow us to do so, of course), and maybe implement your "board number in game result" suggestion (https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26766).

What's the point of a forum for feedback on the game if it's not maintained anymore?

the official reporting system means NOTHING ANYWAY if the developer has disappeared.

Already answered by Jellby and cowboy_dan, but I'd like to say again that even when nobody works anymore on a game, feedback is still useful (in the bugs and suggestions section in most cases, or on this forum, in case a discussion is needed, for example), because an "abandoned" game can be taken over by another dev. (Or the original dev can come back from the grave some day ...)

It is not great that someone can release a game and then abandon it entirely.

Well, even if in my case, as I said above, I didn't really abandon it entirely (I agree that it can look like I did), I still want to say that when a volunteer dev abandons a game entirely, even if this is not great, this is life. We have a life, and it can happen sometimes that we don't have free time anymore. If games on BGA were made only by developers who were 100% sure to finish it AND maintain it for years, for free, there would be half less games, I believe. But the good thing is that BGA allows for developers to fix bugs or implement suggestions for games that they didn't develop themselves, if the original dev is not availabe anymore. (But I have to admit that this is not always easy.)

[aaronkw]

Thanks for the reply fafa-fr. I did not know you receive emails for all the forum posts. I simply went to your profile and it said you had not logged in for over 2 years, which is why I figured you were gone.

an "abandoned" game can be taken over by another dev

BGA allows for developers to fix bugs or implement suggestions for games that they didn't develop themselves

These are the pieces of information I am happy to know. What is the process (or where is the process documented) for someone else to take over a game? Something like putting the board game result in a label somewhere feels easy enough to me where I wouldn't mind rolling up my sleeves to figure it out.

[Toastcrumbs]

What is the process (or where is the process documented) for someone else to take over a game? Something like putting the board game result in a label somewhere feels easy enough to me where I wouldn't mind rolling up my sleeves to figure it out.

This might be a good place to start:
https://studio.boardgamearena.com/