I saw that some people are still discussing this topic, so here it is:
"We do care. When we are planning an update we do look at the suggestions to find those that are highly upvoted and that we could accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. We will also look at those suggestions if/when we decide to start working on SimplePlanes 2. As other players have pointed out we are currently focused on SR2 since we have promises laid out in the Early Access plan that we need to finish before we can fully release it on Steam. That, combined with COVID, we've been very short on dev time for SimplePlanes. I'm sorry you feel that way, but we are doing the best we can."
-Andrew Garrison, on this forum post
Those old lines still make sense, even today.
The only thing that is changed is that now there is not as much Covid and the thing about SR2 is a little different.
new comers just don't understand how this game works
it's not dead, this is so damn normal for sp
sure the game needs some stuff done but like seriously it's still a good game, and it's not going anywhere, it's just the community on the website that's running a bit dry
Activity dies down about this time every year anyay. It'll pick back up around december.
@Mantha
ok
I respect your opinion. kthxbye
but i still think the game is alive
@Dragoranos
I did read the pinned comments.
I've been playing SP since April of 2017, for 5+ years now. It never had "frequent" updates, but it certainly had much more frequent updates than what we've seen in a while, that's for sure. Also, the VR update was not in this year, it was last December. We haven't had any updates to this game all year, except for a tiny hotfix in January.
If I was a developer, I would finish the game I initially started working on before starting (and finishing) a whole new one. I know of VERY few times when a developer put one game on hiatus to go work on another, and didn't end up abandoning the original game. I've watched many games experience that fate. Also, I disagree that SP is "already well developed". The designer system is horribly obtuse, there's a lack of basic building parts to work with, the few world locations in this game have little variety, the tutorial is next to useless, the AI is barely "intelligent", and even additional performance improvements would be a breath of fresh air.
This game is severely lacking, there are no two ways about it. The above-mentioned glaring holes in the game have been there for years with hardly any changes to the game to address them. Granted, the devs may just be enjoying developing SR2 and will some day come back to this game, or they may simply have run out of passion for SP, and I don't blame them for either one.
However, as "dead games" go, SP is looking more and more dead as the months wear on. All signs we have indicate that this game is very unfinished and its development appears to have come to a standstill. It may not be dead for certain, but like I said- it's definitely comatose.
@Mantha
see pinned comments
It's not that. SP has never received frequent updates. Not to mention that it literally received the biggest update in SP history, with also a VR version (which they had been developing for quite a while).
And the biggest reason for all of this, SR2 will be released! If you were a developer, do you have a great game that has huge potential that is leaving Early Access, or are you going to focus on your 2014's game, that is already well developed, with a well-established community, among other things?
Think about it!
And I know Andrew's quote is old, but it's the closest we have to an official answer. You're not the first to say things like that, the claims that the game is dead are nothing new.
I'd like to point out that the message from the dev you quoted was made 2.4 years ago. That's not exactly up-to-date info, or representative of the current development situation (whatever that even is).
We haven't had any major updates this year, and it's already mid-October. Meanwhile, the game is still sorely in need of quality of life improvements (see my suggestions post for more on that), new/updated world locations, performance improvements, AI improvements, and an overhaul to the designer UI and its tutorials. The game is very fun, but with serious, blatant flaws. The fact that the holes in this game haven't been addressed in so long, coupled with the fact that Simple Rockets 2 is still under constant development (and looks like a far more fleshed-out game than SP), indicates to me that the devs have shelved this game and committed themselves fully to their newer game. There's so much more work this game needs to adequately fill in its gaps, yet little has been done to address these things despite the years dragging on.
Perhaps the devs have lost their passion for SP, perhaps they decided it's no longer worth the effort, or perhaps the devs will revitalize this game and its development some day. It's unclear whether or not this game is dead, but it's very certain that SP is in a coma, at least.
@jamesPLANESii only real reason people are saying the game is dying is because the OGs are leaving. But the game is gaining new members faster than people are becoming inactive.
@jamesPLANESii Haha yep. School/University comes around and you start seeing all the reduced activity forum posts.
The reason the game is dying: It isn't. People are just saying it is.
Game no die.