I don’t really see anyone supporting the devs. I see people still enjoying the game and they’re happy to have gleam club and sovereign planets. If you don’t enjoy the game, and don’t want to have gleam club or sovereigns then that’s fine. No one will beg you to change your mind. But, people pretending to hate the game that have hundreds, or thousands, of hours of playtime are the absolute worst.
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Any purchase supports Monumental, people playing the game supports Monumental even if you don’t want to directly support Monumental.
I love the game and the community, but it’s quite hard morally to support the game in any way. Making the bday planet was a hard choice for me because that’s the sort of thing Monumental should be doing. They should update the event planets, they should run the events without being told or reminded to do so, they should be doing some development as promised.
It’s like any relationship, it takes both sides to make it work and when one side doesn’t care or even communicate it’s time to move on.
It’s a catch 22 though, if no one supports Monumental and they gave no money to Monumental, then maybe the game just goes away, on the flip side it’s hard to support a game owner that doesn’t act like they care about their own game or community.
I do find it odd people still pay for anything with the game though, but that’s their choice as poor of a choice that is
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Well here is some lukewarm support for the devs:
I’ll happily play future Monumental games if they’re worth playing. Yes, I said it.
Video games are entertainment purchases, not lifelong contractual obligations. I buy them because I want to enjoy them, not because I’m signing up for an indefinite commitment from a developer to continue supporting their product for years regardless of what happens.
Monumental owns the game, and frankly, they don’t owe the couple dozen people still playing it a perpetual commitment to keep it alive. We should be thanking them for leaving the lights on as long as they have.
Did someone from Monumental make lofty promises about communication and future updates? Yes. But there’s a difference between making plans and dealing with the reality of acquiring a game that was already on life support, with an extremely small, hyper-niche, player base.
I actually think a complete wipe and relaunch at somewhere between $0 and $9.99 makes sense. I don’t know if it would work but there is nothing to lose at this point.
A free relaunch could work if the in-game store can be expanded enough to generate sustainable revenue. Otherwise, a modest upfront price seems perfectly reasonable.
Before the 3 or 4 people who panic when they here “wipe” comment let me say: Do I think this will happen? No. This game’s end is likely near. That is the reality
What I find genuinely baffling is reading comments insisting that free games attract the wrong kind of players, while the game is sitting here practically dead, sometimes struggling to get a dozen players on a good day. At some point, you have to ask what the alternative is. Preserving the status quo clearly isn’t bringing in new players or keeping the game healthy.
Truth be told, there are probably some who like the game as it currently sits. They have an entire empty universe of ghost towns and what must feel like a private game for them and a few virtual friends. I get that. And that probably does feel pretty cool to some. Enjoy it while it lasts.
If this game does somehow carry on. . . . the reality is that the game needs a viable future, not a promise to preserve the past.
The past DID NOT WORK. If this game ever gets relaunched, and I don’ think it ever will be, it will be to attract hundreds or thousands of new players, not to appease the dozen or so who remain. That could mean making changes that the current ultra-tiny player base considers dealbreakers, whether that’s a full wipe, or something else entirely. That’s the reality of trying to revive a dead game.
You have to prioritize building a sustainable future over catering to the preferences of the small handful of people still here. And if you want to leave, then bye. Let’s face it, would a company care if they lost 8 or 9 fossilized players off if they could get 1000 new players. Of course not.
Again, I don’t think this will happen. It looks far more likely the game will remain as is and eventually just be shut off. Probably sooner than later.
If Monumental can find a way to make it commercially sustainable, great. If they release something down the road that looks worthwhile, I’ll happily give it a try.
Sorry for such a long post
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I also accept it’s as is where is until the lights finally go out. If there were another game like this that allowed for work arounds for the mechanics I can’t do (ie: staying on peaceful planets and buying from those who can and enjoy battling cranky critters; being able to travel through dangerous planets safely via others building covered enclosed spaces etc) I’d certainly support it.
If someone brought out a Boundless-like game, if it was Monumental down the track, the lack of good will they engendered by simply not engaging, even on a superficial* level, even when people reached out to offer free help - that would give me pause before buying. I might still go ahead and buy for myself because, as previously noted, there are so very few games where I can devote thousands of hours** to and not hit a hard wall of “You shall not pass!” But I could not, in good conscience, recommend it to others in the way I would from an unknown company and for games like this word of mouth is kind of essential.
- I wouldn’t require constant game updates etc, just once a month, hey, this turned out differently to how we expected, but in the mean time, this is what we are working on now - I’d have cheered them, and maybe checked out their other games.
** Even Minecraft vanilla - you have to go to the nether to be able to do things unless you want to play in peaceful creative, and that just feels lonely and not really an achievement. I tried playing again after playing Boundless and then never went back.
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Speaking of other games to play. Enshrouded looks very close to what I want in a game except it’s missing the shop system boundless has and the large open worlds with players joining from all over. I would even be okay with NPCs since I no longer have much time to maintain a large player base in any game at this moment, they would just have to really be incredibly detailed and interactive. I think light no fire could scratch this itch but that’s simply just speculative since little to no information is out for it yet. The new x box should have steam on it so I imagine I can play boundless on that when i get it after its release next year. Then if nothing comes out and if these servers are still running I will probably run around and smack mobs in the head .
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I would absolutely be down to go ahead and make a “Boundless successor” with AI-assisted programming and my own programming knowledge.
AI speeds things up tremendously as a tool, and if you actually know how to test and iterate, I could likely make a very similar game within a few weeks.
However, these days people are extremely against AI, so the very nature of the game having been assisted via AI would keep a lot of people from being even interested in checking it out.
If enough of you are interested though, I could go ahead and start working on this and see how feasible it is.
Edit: The biggest issue might honestly be that I can’t make it exactly the same. While we can keep the functionality, the actual art style/direction and the specific elements (creatures/lore) cannot be carried over. It would be its own unique game. Not everyone here might like that.
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Loving the Positive posts here. The ones playing love the game. To say they are supporting Minumental by Gleam Club and renting Sovs lol. Yes indirectly but NO they are supporting a game they love period. As many have said you don’t want to you don’t have to. But don’t begrudge those that do.
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Supporting the game indirectly supports Monumental as does just playing the game.
I get it, many people feel they are just supporting the game so it doesn’t go away, but regardless your money goes directly to Monumental.
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Guess you missed where I said “Indirectly”. It is not how we feel about it though.
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you said that, but it is “directly”.
For example you are not indirectly supporting The Coca-Cola Company by buying Sprite. You are directly supporting The Coca-Cola Company.
“Not supporting Coca-Cola Company they are supporting a beverage they love period.” 
I do understand what you are saying. But that is just some sort of coping
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none of those scratch the itch Boundless did, Rust has been the closest because i found a pve server that has many long-time players still on it so there is a sense of continuity
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i’m soooooo not against AI, there’s a lot of ridiculous abuse of it just like any technology or tool or medicine. society must advance with its technology.
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The OP is completely right, and their analysis nailed it.
As a Boundless fan it is a shame. But frankly, I am not sure I disagree with Monumental’s business strategy.
Why waste money on new infrastructure, development teams, updates, and actual new game design for a very niche audience when you can pivot capital into low-overhead web games and clickers that obtain easy ad revenue off impulse buys? Which is less risky?
Those of us with Gleam Club and sovereigns are directly subsidizing Monumental’s next top-charting match-3 puzzle game. Now that is real company loyalty!
Obviously Monumental determined, right or wrong, that casual mobile browser games have much better ROI. If they are correct that is real strategic genius.
For those like me, who love Boundless, it is a hard pill to swallow, but at least the lights are on, and the game is still enjoyable as is
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cough money laundering cough
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