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Covenant of Morn | Development Canceled
🕑 Added 2025-10-13 07:49:47 +0000 UTCAs of today, I’m officially canceling the development of Covenant of Morn and shifting my full focus to My Girl Loves Handcuffs.
This has been a decision I’ve struggled with for weeks—honestly, for months—and it’s been weighing heavily on me. But after a lot of thought, I’ve realized that I simply can’t keep developing CoM any longer. Financially and mentally, it’s drained me to a point where it’s no longer sustainable.
I want to deeply and sincerely apologize to everyone who supported this project and hoped to see it finished.
Knowing I’m disappointing some of you has been haunting my thoughts—and even my dreams—but I’ve reached the point where I no longer have a real choice.
I’m sorry. You’ve paid money for this project, and I failed to deliver.
That’s hard to admit, but I want to be transparent and explain why I made this decision. There are two main reasons—one financial, one mental—and while both matter, one weighs far more heavily than the other.
Finances
When Itch.io removed adult games from their platform, I lost about half my income overnight.
I’ve always lived simply: a cheap apartment in a part of town no one wants to be in, no car, no expensive hobbies. My only “luxury” is my overpowered PC—which, thankfully, counts as a business expense.
Even with that, I have to stay realistic. Covenant of Morn has been losing money since the start. It never caught on the way MIST did. I knew that, but I hoped it might turn around. I wanted to keep going because I genuinely loved the idea of it.
Now, three years later, it’s still not financially viable.
With half my income gone, I’m facing the real possibility that I won’t be able to keep doing game development full-time if things don’t change.
I hate to say it, but I simply can’t afford to keep developing CoM until completion.
But that’s only part of the story—and not even the most important part.
Mentally
The truth is, I can’t focus anymore.
No matter what I try—different schedules, new methods, mindset tricks—it doesn’t help. I can’t stay concentrated on CoM for more than an hour. It’s not because I stopped caring; I still love the concept and the world.
But for the last two years, every update has felt like running into a wall. I’d pour everything into it, release it, and feel unsatisfied. Then I’d push myself up for the next one, only to end up disappointed again—by the reception, by the results, by how far it fell short of what I imagined.
From the very beginning, my ideas were too big, too complex, too ambitious, just convoluted. I knew I was biting off more than I could chew, but I believed I could manage it through sheer motivation. I was wrong. Those expectations I built for myself ended up killing the joy I once had for making games.
A few months ago, CoM started to feel like it was crushing me. That’s when I decided to give a small side project a try—a project I’d been thinking about for a while but always put off because I didn’t want to take time away from CoM.
That side project became My Girl Loves Handcuffs—and it changed everything.
Suddenly, I was having fun again. I could work for hours without noticing the time passing. I loved designing the UI, creating minigames, writing scenes. It felt like discovering game development all over again.
When I released the first update, I felt genuinely excited to return to CoM—but when I opened the files again, it hit me.
That same heavy, suffocating feeling returned. The sense that every click and every render was a burden.
I tried to fight it for two more months, but it didn’t go away. Every minute working on CoM was draining the joy from my days—even after I stopped working. It was clear: I had to choose between stopping CoM or stopping game development altogether.
And so, I’m choosing to let CoM go.
Looking Forward
The development of Covenant of Morn is officially canceled.
I know this will disappoint some of you, and I’m truly, sorry. But I’m not giving up on making adult games. I still love creating them, I learned that now—and I want to keep doing that in a way that’s sustainable and enjoyable again.
From now on, I’ve promised myself that every project I take on must be something I can realistically develop within a year to a year and a half. Smaller scope, more focus, more fun and ways to play around and just try things out.
My Girl Loves Handcuffs is exactly that: a project that reminds me why I started making games in the first place. It’s playful, creative, and manageable. And I’m excited to keep expanding it.
After that—who knows? Maybe a fantasy dungeon crawler with a monster girl.
Maybe a survival game on a mysterious island.
Maybe a supernatural farming sim.
Maybe a haunted house with a sexy ghost.
I don’t know what comes next. I’m prepared for Patreon to take a hit after this decision—but I also know it’s the right call. Kind of the only call for my well being.
I’m sad that Covenant of Morn didn’t make it, but I’m also excited again—for My Girl Loves Handcuffs, and everything that might come after.
Thank you for understanding. Thank you for years of your support. Thank you for giving me the chance to keep doing what I love so much.
Comments
Keisi
You have the perfect formula for burnout. Actually, you're already there, you just don't know it yet. Honestly, when I became a dev, I lost track of all the devs I followed at that time because I focused on my work. Still, I really loved MIST. Five years later, here I am, having announced my complete retirement. Why? For the same reason as you: Lack of motivation. Nah, in fact... due to very significant health problems caused by stress, anxiety and workaholism in recent years. Reworks, revamps, remakes... Overwork is a direct consequence. I haven't been half as successful as you are, and I've developed physical and mental illnesses I never thought I'd have in my entire life. I swear, I was reading you, and it felt like one of my past devlogs... Let me give you some advice: Seek professional help (a psychologist), or your main project will end up suffering the same fate as the cancelled one. You can't have constant motivation if you don't fix your problems in your head first. And yeah, all of that includes the whole money obsession, which is the main cause of all the problems in this "being an H-dev" thing. I hope you have better luck with the new project, but please, seek professional help. This job is really tough, and unless you have unbreakable resilience, you end up caving in to people's pressure, constantly wanting to be relevant, pushing yourself harder than you should, taking on more than you can... You know as well as I do that the list is long. Now MGLH is your main motivation, but keep one thing in mind: It will never be the same as MIST. Things can't be replicated, so don't waste all your energy trying to replicate something that won't be the same. Instead, try not to let anything or anyone distort your vision. You have something that made MIST unique, and when you find what made it unique again, you can truly "replicate" something like that. Although it sounds mystical, the answer lies within you. Best of luck.
Art Metrics
I get it. CoM was, to be frank, too dark for my liking. The art was fantastic, though, and I'll miss it. But I've learned that it's not wise to get attached to unfinished games. I have enjoy MGLH, but that's not much my cup of tea either, but perhaps it will evolve. Mist was great, not too dark. Good luck!
Suraj Seepersad
Hi Dev at first it I didn't take the news well about the cancelation of CoM but hearing your reasoning I understood why you've come to this decision. I don't know what comes next after MGLH if you will re-work the entire CoM or start a new project but I can tell you that whatever you do in life please enjoy and take satisfaction out of it otherwise you wouldn't love your game the way the players loves it or take satisfaction out of your work the way us players did with Mist and CoM. I don't know what comes next for you Dev but if you did a CoM remake or start a new project don't ever make your work a burden
Bormaley
While the new game is not for my test, I respect that you were open with your decision and have willpower to share it with our audience, instead of hiding behind a rock. Best of luck for you!
Lavan
A shame, I enjoyed CoM. But I know whatever you end up making will be great.
