Hey everyone,

This isn’t an easy post to make, but I believe in being transparent with anyone who’s followed, supported, or even just glanced at my work over time.

After careful thought, I’ve decided to shut down all of my game development efforts indefinitely. This isn’t a decision made out of impulse, it’s the result of ongoing frustrations, burnout, and most recently, changes to itch.io’s policies that have made continuing simply not worth the stress.

📉 The Final Nail: Itch.io’s New Quality Guidelines

Recently, itch.io introduced a set of “Content Quality Guidelines” (you can read them here: itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines). On the surface, they’re meant to “improve discoverability” and “reduce spam,” but the way these policies are structured has deeply worrying implications, especially for small solo devs like me.

One line stood out like a red flag:

“If you fail to adhere to these guidelines, our systems or a site moderator may choose to remove your page from itch.io’s discovery index.”

Let me translate that plainly: Your entire project page can be made invisible. Not taken down, just shadowbanned from visibility and the only way for people to find your games is your page via direct link.

No notification. No appeal. Just gone from search. This includes pages that:

• Aren’t tagged just right

• Use AI-generated assets or code without proper disclaimers

• Don’t follow subjective formatting standards or have “insufficient content”

For someone like me, who works solo, on limited time and energy, and occasionally leans on AI for placeholder art or minor design help, that’s a terrifyingly vague and punishing stance.

I’ve seen firsthand how even tiny indie projects can just disappear overnight due to rule changes, without recourse. I can’t invest my soul into something that might be algorithmically erased.

⚠️ What This Means for My Projects

Any games I’ve been working on, prototypes, experiments, all of it is being shelved.

I’m not deleting anything right away, but I’m not going to be actively developing or promoting my titles on itch.io or elsewhere for the foreseeable future. Some files or pages may go private soon depending on how itch.io enforces these changes.

To be perfectly honest, I’m tired. I’ve been pouring what little creative energy I have into game ideas that never make it past a prototype or demo because:

• I don’t have a team

• I don’t have the funding

• I don’t have the energy to learn 10 tools just to publish something that might get buried or banned

This isn't a ragequit, this is resignation from a system that doesn't seem built for devs like me anymore.

🧠 About Burnout & Mental Clarity

The more time I spent fighting engines, navigating vague guidelines, and stressing about whether a simple UI asset would flag me for a policy strike, the less joy I found in development. And when you lose the joy in a creative process, what’s the point?

I’ve also realized I’m more passionate about other forms of creativity. Music, writing, world-building, those mediums allow me to express what I want without worrying about whether I formatted my damn itch.io page perfectly.

And to be honest, game dev became a trap for my ADHD, overwhelming, detail-heavy, and impossible to finish without burning out. I don’t want to keep doing something that hurts me to do.

🙏 Thank You

If you ever downloaded, played, or even clicked “like” on something I made, thank you.

If you’re someone who messaged me with encouragement or feedback, I saw it. It mattered.

And to the tiny part of me that still hopes to make a game someday, maybe I will, but it won’t be under the pressure of indie dev grind culture or restrictive platform policies.

For now, I’m walking away. No regrets, just clarity.

With honesty and appreciation,
Love, Ethyrya~

P.S: if you wish to keep up with my other projects visit https://suno.com/@eliasgraves for my music!