So long and thanks for all the fish

[FlowerChild]

With today being the 10th anniversary of the first release of Better Than Wolves, and with the release of the source code, I feel it is a good time for me to say goodbye to the mod and its fans.

It's been a wild ride this last decade with plenty of highs and lows along the way, but it's clear to me this is a chapter I wish to bring to a close in my life. If I ask anything of the community in leaving, it is that you let me do so in peace and let me make a clean break with the mod and FlowerChild. After all this time, effort, and conflict, it is not something I wish to carry any longer and I hope you all will respect that.

I'll keep an eye on things throughout the day to make sure the source release goes smoothly, but I won't be returning afterwards. I'll be similarly shutting down most points of contact with FlowerChild such as the BTW Twitter account, and have already begun that process in these past weeks. Apologies to anyone unfriended or what have you as part of that process, there was absolutely nothing personal in any of that.

Much heartfelt thanks to sargunster for keeping these forums going all these years. I sincerely doubt I would have lasted this long without your support and I deeply appreciate it. Much thanks to Sarudak as well for helping with its moderation and helping to shield me from at least a portion of the chaos involved. I'll leave it to you guys to decide what to do with these forums and if you wish to keep them going after my departure.

And thanks to all of you for playing my creation. It's been a trip.

[EpicAaron]

When I was younger, the mods of this Little Big Planet blog that I was a part of gave the same Hitchhikers send off. Very emotional for me.

Thanks for a decade of engagement. I've learned a lot about video games, Minecraft, and myself. I wish you the best!

[Ethazeriel]

<3

[jorgebonafe]

Thanks for everything man, it's been really fun :)

[Whuppee]

I'm so glad to have met you, and that you liked me too means so much. I wish you the best, and thank you for everything <3

[Sockthing]

Thank you for making the game I've played the most, by a long shot. BTW has inspired me to make pixelart (and my own texturepack) and most recently to code.
It was great fun having you join us back in 2015 in a livestream during the BTW Meetup we did. That was a great night!
All the best.

[Caboose]

Thanks Flowerchild, thanks for 10 years of BTW, the feast's worth of food for thought you've given me over those years, and for helping create the kind of gaming community I can actually feel safe in.

Wishing you the best of luck, and stay safe, the world's not getting any less crazy.

[SterlingRed]

BTW has provided a significant amount of creative inspiration, joy, frustration, escape, and much needed stress relief from the other chaos in my life for the last 10 years. I can't think of many games I've sunk this much time into, and certainly not one I've enjoyed more. I can't thank you enough for that FC! Thank you, and best of luck!

[icynewyear]

Thank you for everything. i'm glad we met and hope the next part of your journey brings you happiness. <3

[destineternel]

I'm terrible with goodbyes. But FC I can't thank you enough for creating/maintaining BTW. It was pretty much the only game I played from 2011 up until a couple of years ago. I screamed at the wall so many times because of you, rage quit a few times and had many pleasurable nightmares. So yeah thank you once again and wish you the best for you next journey wherever that takes you. <3

[magikeh]

10 years is a long time for a lot of projects. We've seen all sorts of change in the Minecraft community and you kept plugging away at your vision. Thank you for keeping on keeping on, and I hope for the best of your future and mental health! ^-^/

[Battosay]

Goodbye friend, take care <3

[jstu9]

Thank you for this amazing and (sometimes infuriating) game!

[Niyu]

Well, it's been a fun ride. You will be missed.

[TheGatesofLogic]

Thank you FlowerChild. I can’t express how much joy your efforts and creativity have brought to my life. For all the countless other things I’ve done in the nearly 10 years I have played the mod, this is the one rock I have always returned to over and over again. Through good times and bad this community that you have fostered has been the one thing I never truly left behind through my adult life. I’ve had many wild and unexpected changes, many of them happy, but nothing has stood so foundational strong. It’s sad to see you go, but today tells a tale of all you have achieved and all the love I and others have for you. Take care, be happy, know that we appreciate you.

[dawnraider]

BTW has been one of the only games to manage to hold my attention for so many years. I started playing back in July of 2011 and just never really stopped. It's certainly been a wild ride!

I wish you the best of luck in life, wherever that may take you.

[CrimsonStorm]

Hey man, I'm pretty sad to see you go but I understand wanting to have a clean break. Best of luck and happiness with whatever you decide to do next!

[FerretFitz]

Thanks again for everything youve done for minecraft. I think you truly have shown its full potential.

[yany]

I can't say that I've been a member of this community for most of this decade. Many people in this thread were already around even before I knew anything about Minecraft. Still, I have played the mod in most of these 10 years, and I do feel the weight of a decade when I think back to my first memories of BTW. Even if I'm not very well known around here, and I don't know much about the history of the community, I would like to express my gratitude for everything, especially if this really is my last chance to do so.

Thank you FlowerChild for this amazingly deep and well thought-out game that you created, and thank you for giving it to us for free. Thank you for helping me keep busy in the times when I needed the most stressful thing in my life to be 3rd strata mining. Thank you for helping me deepen my appreciation for challenging games, and even more so for good and balanced game design. I always enjoyed reading your thoughts whenever you discussed the things you considered when making changes in the mod. I hope that I managed to pick up at least bits and pieces of your approach, and that I'll be able to put it to good use in the future. Besides giving me countless hours of entertainment, BTW has inspired me to make games myself. Though most of that is ahead of me instead of behind, I hope one day I'll be able to put out something at least half as good as BTW.

I am sad to see you leave the mod, but much more than that, I am happy to see all that you gave to this community. I wish you all the best, and I hope you find what you're looking for in whatever you move on to do.

[cam94509]

So long, and that's for all the fish indeed.

Thanks for years of fun. I haven't been here constantly all the time, but I've left and come back occasionally and it's always been a lot of fun to find out all the ways the mod has developed and changed when I was gone. It's kind of weird, knowing that there will never be another New Early Game to learn.

Thanks for a decade of new things to discover. Good luck in your future endeavors!

[Mason11987]

<3

[TheThievingMonkey]

I only had brief interactions with you many years ago, but I felt I had to come back to say something, as Better Than Wolves and all your thorough comments on game design over the years have been a massive source of inspiration on how I view and approach gaming as a whole. Thank you for all your dedication on this project and community, I hope whatever you choose to do next in your life brings you as much joy as your work on BTW brought me through the years.

[gaga654]

Thanks for everything FC. I was never much of an active participant here but I always checked up on the forums at least once every week or two. I could say a lot more about the effect that you and this community have had on me but I'm not great with words so I'll just leave it at: thank you, and best of luck in your future endeavors <3

[jakerman999]

The legacy you leave behind is something to be proud of. Your insights, wisdom, curation and far more will be missed.

May your future endeavors be fruitful, and the wind always at your back.

42.

[Yhetti]

<3