Dear Notorious

I hope this message finds you well.

As a company, you chose a way to connect with people.

Maybe there were only about 200 of us over the past year, but we felt engaged, encouraged, and heard. You made us deeply attached, so we cannot simply let go without expressing what we feel.

During every dev talk, whoever you invited to speak never stopped thanking you for the game you created — sharing how amazed they were, how much they loved your project, and how much potential it has, with limitless ideas and directions.

The world, so complete, created not meaninglessly out of nowhere, but carefully built with thoughtful lore, stitching every piece of the game together.

The art design, so beautiful — bright, colorful, detailed, so fantasy perfect.

The combat system, so engaging and surprisingly deep, managing to impress both PvE and PvP players.

The mobs, so dynamic, distinct, and unforgiving for newcomers.

It’s so rare these days to find a game where enemies don’t die from a single skill. Learning the game felt amazing. I believe the PvE aspect was underestimated due to the initial PvP focus and the dominant PvP community.

And Mor’Thog Lair… what a masterpiece. Watching veteran streamers fall over and over again was a blast. A magnificent result of your team’s experience. The atmosphere, the mechanics, different class usability — it all worked incredibly well. One run per week wasn’t ideal, but that’s a topic for another time.

With a small team, its great ideas, but limited resources, you managed to create something truly special — a rough diamond, very complex to refine, yet incredibly promising.

For a game of this quality to simply disappear from Steam feels unbelievable. I couldn’t accept it for days after the announcement. With so many low-quality games flooding 90% of Steam, losing this one is just insane.

Even after being killed by a rogue for the 100th time, I never regretted discovering this game and spending days in it — learning, playing, gathering, season after season.

It might become repetitive for experienced players without new maps, but for someone discovering it for the first time, it’s still an incredible journey.

Setting aside the PvP debate, this is still an extraction game at its core — focused on collecting loot.

It was no secret that the player base peaked for about two weeks after each wipe. Most experienced players would finish upgrading their lodge, and with that, the core gameplay loop was essentially complete. There was no reason to return to extraction maps.

I may be naïve, missing lots of details, but as an experienced gamer hooked to a ton of titles at once with no real-life time for all of them, let me say:

A basic battle pass combined with small simple events every three weeks could change so much.

These could be minimal-effort additions at first, mostly handled through the lobby interface —killing specific mobs or collecting certain loot events. The game’s foundation is so solid that ideas come naturally:

– Undead rising / goblin invasion (kill specific enemies, bring their loot)

– Stoneheaven feast / plague threat (collect food or herbs, craft meals or potions)

A three-week progression period after each wipe, followed by a couple of three-week events and a cosmetic reward for each, could create a fulfilling season for all types of players. If only it was manageable for the release season...

I’m sorry — I should stop these “what if” useless thoughts. It’s just hard not to express them. Let me return to the present.

I have to say goodbye, but I do so with hope. I still can’t believe a game like this can simply vanish into the void.

I choose to believe it will return.

Maybe through player-side servers, or even as a single-player experience brought back to Steam. I truly hope there are hearts who love this game as much as I do.

Maybe with small-scale development in the future, supported by us, loyal fans who continue to play and share it — and it might appear not to be as lost as you had to decide.

Maybe it will keep growing, becoming more complete with each idea your team and community already have, implemented by someone not indifferent.

It won’t be a bestseller, at least not at first. It won’t make millions. But it will be a humble game, cherished by its community — and still better than most small-scale games on Steam.

But it deserves to live and bring joy to those who discover it.

I wish every team member the best in this unstable gaming industry — and the opportunity to continue realizing your ideas, passion, dedication.

Thank you, Notorious team. Thank you for creating such an incredible world. Thank you for your passion and creativity in developing the game. Thank you for caring about the lore and making it meaningful. Thank you for the gorgeous high quality art concepts, so beautifully pieced together. Thank you for engaging with the community through dev talks. Thank you for listening to feedback — overwhelming, repeating and not always pleasantly presented. Thank you for tirelessly fixing bugs for such a demanding and pushing community.

Unrestrained feelings from a nameless fan — who doesn’t even like PvP games.