Even small dev teams don't need to be in the same office to work on games. All we can do is speculate, obviously, but there's no indication whatsoever that Sidebar Games was impacted by shutdowns or anything like that. Now, I don't know if at some point Sidebar Games grew, but I think the only way covid impacted development is if the original Dev actually got seriously ill from it, or someone in his family died or something, causing them to lose motivation. So it's not like they couldn't go to the 'office' any more and work on the game with a team there was no team on Golf Story, it was just those two. Sidebar games was originally two people (two brothers, I believe), and it seems like one of them (Andrew Newey) was the primary lead. Tl:dr: Life, love, stress and setbacks for those trying to breathe. They just gotta hang in there and give themselves some grace, even if the fans don’t. I’m sure it doesn’t feel like it right now, but this experience will be a treasure trove of knowledge that can be used to grow exponentially. I just hope everyone involved is well and able to get through. You learn so much more through the bad times, but only after you are able to put distance in between. As cliche as it sounds, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Fortunately, I made it through and am now on the winning side of that time in my life. I know what it’s like to be drowning in that type of anxiety and pressure. I just feel like raging about my 15 dollars seems petty af when compared to the value of a human life. Public failure brings a type of vulnerability that very few have to experience, and in this case, it comes right after failing privately for years.

It’s a lot of pressure, and unfortunately it can lead to irreversible decisions. Some of my favorite indie games have resulted in life altering trauma to the devs. I know a lot of people are pissed, which is arguably warranted, but I am primarily worried about the devs.

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