I think he really couldn't deal with pressure wether it was on Itchio or not.
It is the whole story around NTR-stuff - first he created game with optional (or he said), then he made it unavoidable and updated tags, then after some harassment he said he will make it avoidable even though it doesn't suit the story, and after a while eventually he told everybody to fuck off and that he will make the game he wanted to make. My opinion - he had to do that right from the start - you do you and that's it. Who doesn't like will avoid.
But all this wiggling back and forth never ends well.
I think in Griff's case, he... like a lot of other people, it seems... wasn't really sure what is considered 'NTR' and what isn't when he first started out.
I think that played a pretty good role in it.
Add to the fact that you seem to also have a lot of people who scream
NTR whenever there is another dick in a scene with any female character in the game (whether she is an LI or not) because they are insecure over the fact that people in this world can fuck too and they aren't the only male with a dick on the planet.
Just because a character has boobs, pussy, ass and looks fuckable and is getting dick from someone OTHER THAN the MC of the game does NOT make the game an NTR one.
Personally, Griff should've just told people what I tell people: "This is MY game, MY story and I HAVE to tell the story MY WAY... if you can't handle it, then this isn't a game you should play."
Even after that, you are still going to get some individuals who will whine and complain, promising that they "will never support the game" and using that line as some sort of cudgel to try and convince or threaten the creator into bending to their desires. (my answer: "Fuck you, your lousy $1 a month... should you
really seek or even intended to part with it, isn't worth it when compared to the $5, $10 OR more that I get from others.")
Personally, IMHO, the situation with Sheva... though she does become a potential LI if players want, bobbing the knob of some slave running prick to try and make her life easier after a 5 minute conversation with the MC is NOT NTR. She hasn't committed or pledged her love to the MC, hell, the MC isn't even really a blip on her radar... the only thing that is, is trying to make her life as easy as possible and looking out for herself.
But, hey... try telling that to people who are threatened with the fact that the game contains other characters with a dick in it.
One last point I'd add is this:
Part of the problem, I think, is the tagging system... not just here, but at other places.
A lot of creators play the "tagging" game... trying to create a game and story around the popular tags in the hopes of "striking gold/oil" out of the vast number of other games out there.
AND THEN, you also have a system where you
CAN'T ADD a tag to the game UNTIL IT IS IN THE GAME... which then catches some people off guard, when it suddenly appears in the game, and then freak out or are, sometimes, understandably disappointed when it does... because they've already invested time (and sometimes money) with characters, the story and a format that they were comfortable with.
This... and the fact that you have some creators willing to capitulate to vocal people to make such things "avoidable" only helps to foster a belief to some visitors/players that if they are vocal enough or start a campaign of creator harassments that the creator will kowtow to them and fuck the game and story that they originally had planned to try and silence it... thereby reducing the value of what the product was or could be and just causing the creator to lose interest because they are no longer telling the story that they originally wanted to tell.
Being a creator in this kind of environment is
EXTREMELY difficult.
It requires the creator to be thick skinned to all manners of critique and harassment, while also being willing to bend and navigate through the creative process of meeting the goals and expectations of your supporters. It also requires a creator to invest a lot of time, dedication and work for pennies in the hopes of having a financially successful product/game down the road, because too many customers have been fucked in the past by "pump & dump" creators, or by some... like Griff here... who start telling a really good story, only to get discouraged or frustrated to the point that the product/game never gets finished and frustrates the living fuck out of the people that were heavily invested in the story, either emotionally or financially themselves.
There really isn't a cure for this, except to complete the entire project, cross your fingers, release it and hope people likes it... which many of us are simply unable to do, because we need money to survive and these things take a long time to create (and often times, we can't do it alone).
It sucks that Griff likely got frustrated and seemed to have quit. I was a supporter of his, not just a "hey... this is a really great story/game" but was also a financial supporter of his game... plus, it was both of our intention to do a crossover between both of our games and was in the process of doing that... so, yeah... this situation really sucked for everyone involved.
Personally, I hope that with a little time, he'll calm down, return and go back to creating the interesting game that they were creating... but, I am not holding out hope that he does.
