Hey everyone. I've been a little quiet since the game came out (by which I mean I have never interacted with the community once) and I thought I should finally tell you why that is.
First of all, Hand of Doom has not been abandoned, I have been taking note of your feedback and bug reports, and I do care. The reason I've been absent for the rest of the year since it came out is that the development of this game caused multiple significant problems in my personal life, and I had to step away for mental health and financial reasons.
Hand of Doom is my first solo standalone game as Torple Dook. And while I did have an amazing team doing an extraordinary amount of work, the majority of the game rested on my shoulders. Over the year and a half that it took to make Hand of Doom I was subjected to more stress and more pressure than I had ever experienced before in my life. During the last six months of development, and for several months after, my mental health was absolutely destroyed. I went into a deep depression and had to force myself to just get the game across the finish line and released no matter what it took.
After release I was so happy that people were enjoying the game, but I couldn't bear to look it any more. I saw the feedback and the bug reports, but I simply didn't have the mental capacity to deal with them. Even if I did, my contract with DreadXP had ended at that point and I literally couldn't afford to work on it any more, so I was forced to move on whether I wanted to or not. There was simply no possible way that any further work could be done on the game, so it had to be left there, and I had to separate myself from game dev entirely for a very long time for my own health and sanity. I'm doing better now, but this has been a painful learning experience.
I've read every single review that has been left on the game. It has been immensely gratifying to see how many people enjoyed my game and really got what we were going for with it, so thank you all so much for that. I have also taken note of all the negative reviews, what issues people have with the game, and it's apparent abandonment. I promise I have not abandoned Hand of Doom. And while there aren't currently any plans in place to do an update at this moment, it has been on my mind this whole year, and I've been waiting for a time when I am ready to step back into that world, and when I'll be able to financially take the time to do so. You will know as soon as there's anything to know about it.
I know that's a whole lot of personal information you didn't ask for, but that's the transparent truth about why I look like a big jerk who abandoned his game and doesn't care about his players. Sorry for mentioning it 8 months late.
Thanks for sticking with me, thanks for playing Hand of Doom, and keep on ORTING, magelets. 👌🧙♂️🤘
