I know I said before I wasn't planning on doing any more updates like these until I was ready to start sharing stuff for the game again, but honestly, the situation has changed so much by this point that I think it warrants a big update on the game. A lot of what's been going on has happened behind the scenes so I figure I might as well be open and honest about this.

I'll get the big thing out of the way- it's a very real possibility that this game is going to be cancelled or put on indefinite hiatus. I haven't decided on it yet, but at this point it's something I'm really considering.

I want to make it clear: It's not something I want to do. I really like the ideas, concepts, story, themes, and messages behind Puppet Theatre. But the reality is, it's been a long 2 years of development.

I started this project in January 2023. We're now on the cusp of January 2025. I'm not the same person I was when I first started this game. When I first started, I was generally way more enthusiastic about the project and had a lot of momentum coming off of previous projects I worked on in 2022. Since then, life has gotten more busy, a lot of eventful things have happened, and my general interest in this project has waned.

As a result, the game in its current state is basically impossible to finish. It's just too much. I've been trying to chip away at it when I've had the motivation to, but honestly, at the rate I've been at it's just never going to release (or it'll release in like 5 years, which I don't want to spend the time doing). I've just lost all the momentum I once had.

In order for this game to release, I have to significantly rethink this game and what I want to do with it. I still really want to release it, but it's not enough for me to just release it. I want this game to live up to the expectations I have for it, I want it to be something I can look back on and be proud of. Many of you may not know this, but the idea of this game has been a thing since 2017- it's practically my dream project. Needless to say I've got a really specific vision for the project. At the same time, the current scale of the project is just too much for me, which means if it's going to release I would probably have to cut a lot of things & overall simplify parts of the project. I'd also have to do it in a way that wouldn't downgrade the intended experience... it's just an extremely complicated process. That doesn't even mention the fact that there's still so much done and it's hard to throw away all my progress for any reworks I may do.

The reality is: if I can't create this game to fit the vision I have for it, I would rather just not release anything at all. Maybe you think that's a stupid view to have, but I guess I'm just very particular about these sorts of things.

It probably makes more sense once you realize that I've never considered this game as a tribute to FNAF. It's always been a personal project to me, just handled through the framework of Freddy's. I'd even say Puppet Theatre could be its own original game at this point if I wanted to pursue that (though I don't really want to go that route). FNAF itself on the other hand is no longer something I'm really interested in. Because of that, the project is very personal to me and I guess I'm just very specific with the vision I have for it.

Reconciling doing huge reworks of the game with keeping my original vision is going to be a hard task; one I'm not sure I can do. I'll update you guys on my decision eventually. I don't want to keep this project in endless stasis in terms of its status. I'd rather be honest that the project will never release if it comes to that as opposed to just making people wait forever.

Sorry if this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This post is kind of just a big collection of ideas that I've had. I've been thinking about a lot of this for some time now and I wanted to get it out there to be open and honest about what's going on. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll answer what I can. Regardless of what ends up happening though, thank you guys for all the continuing interest and support this whole time. I'll see if I can follow up at some point with a more definitive choice of what I'm going to do going forward.

TLDR: game too big to make in its current state, not much motivation, game might be cancelled, hopefully not