Why Dani and Other Game Devs Left YouTube

Dani, Sam Hogan, and Brackeys have all vanished. What happened to these extraordinary gamedevs?
Edit: Brackeys has returned!
@Danidev @SamHogan @Brackeys
^^^ go check them out
Music Used:
Dark Cloud OST Wise Owl Forest In Game Version
• Dark Cloud OST Wise Ow...
Ever Forever - Context Sensitive
• Ever Forever - Context...
s t e l l a r ♫ Royalty Free Synthwave Loop
• s t e l l a r ♫ Royal...
"I Can Feel it Coming" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Spyro the Dragon OST: Gnorc Cove (STEREO)
• Spyro the Dragon OST: ...
"Constance" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
The Legend of Dragoon (PS1) OST #11 - Royal Capital (Bale/Fletz) [HQ]
• The Legend of Dragoon ...

[@superpenguinyt]

First commentary video ever! Hope you enjoy!

[@ipenutbrudda8823]

Cool video

[@tgb3271]

It was really good

[@Puzzl3]

Hey man, what happened to the server? I can't find it :/

[@superpenguinyt]

@@Puzzl3 Thanks for the concern, I made a community post regarding this.

[@Xx_Gamer64_xX]

Very thumbs up emoji

[@herojoseph5689]

Fun fact, there is a website that lets you track game updates to steam games, any steam game uploaded, like TF2 or Hollow Knight or whatever is on there, even unpublished games! Over the past 2 years Karlson has been receiving almost daily updates to the files, showing he is working on it, it is just taking forever (as he did mention wanting to work less to take more time on life)

[@wertijvonbelker312]

if its true i would like a link to that website, not just for dani stuff but for anything cause thats sounds hella intresting :o

[@herojoseph5689]

@@wertijvonbelker312 alr, let me find it real quick, its been a hot minute since i last used it Edit: found it, it is steamDB, the last update for karlson was 3 days ago.

[@absolutelynoone1850]

@@wertijvonbelker312 links get deleted off of youtube

[@heman9490]

@wertijvonbelker312 the website is called steamdb

[@Jackamaniack]

@@absolutelynoone1850 Computers can still copy and paste the link into the search bar

[@zekenebel]

You are most definitely right about saturation. Ive been making games since around 2016 fresh out of college and now I would never even consider starting a channel in this space. Dani created this unexpected trend where people with little to no experience in the game development space started funelling content onto youtube whilst lacking experience but also the prosperity to actually learn game development. This is almost 100% to do with Dani's nature when it comes to the way he presents his videos. People probably saw the simplistic and laid back nature of his content and made the assumption that it was easy. Now the abundance of terrible game ideas on youtube make it hard for any actual indie game developers to show off their ideas that actually take time to bake.

[@Kooczsi]

exactly, but this is how youtube works. when someone gets popular in a niche part of youtube, that part will grow to a point that outsiders destroy it due to their lack of judgement.

[@superpenguinyt]

You're 100% correct

[@IstyManame]

ehh... if their ideas are terrible then they get no view and don't take up space instead of actual developers. But i agree with everything else

[@omanyt24]

Welp if Karlson not goanna be released by no nut November "I'll do it myself"-thanos

[@zekenebel]

@@IstyManame that’s not true at all , that’s the reason why the “ I made a game in X amount of hours “ is the most common trend. The demographic of this lane of KZbin is other game devs. But the vast majority are the lack lustre game devs who don’t put the work in. Why do you think every game dev is trying to sell you a course lol

[@4bi446]

I dont think Dani quit, theres still ads for karlson being put on youtube so its more than likely hes still working on it in private to avoid the pressures his community has been putting on him. That being said he probably is still experiencing a lot of burnout and stress so progress is probably pretty slow but I dont think hes gone for good.

[@Charactermoment]

those are fakes released by third parties who stole the code

[@flash5791]

bro those ads are not him he said in his discord (and he def dosen't need ads for his game with such a big community)

[@Mr_Pringle593]

Those adds aren’t his, it’s people stealing footage of the prototype for their own dumb mobile game, and also he probably did quit, being a game dev is already really stressful, specially when there’s millions of people wanting content all the time. So KZbin stress, with game dev stress, mixes to make it a lot. So it makes sense.

[@Not_Nik0]

tbh i'm pretty sure those ads are like malware because all the games on that site are strangely the same amount of storage...

[@TheGamerNatte]

​@Mr_Pringle593 They are fake but in his discord he said he is not quitting

[@conceptclarityfan9912]

Really like the effort you put in the video man. So underrated.

[@EnergeticSpark63]

hey

[@SirFancyPotato]

Around a week ago I found a donation left in dani's comment section where dani actually replied hinting towards coming back I have posted it on his reddit if you wanna see it.

[@superpenguinyt]

Cool, I'm going to check it out. Edit: I didn't see your post but I do see I lot of new hearted replies from Dani.

[@Dado_nastro]

Does that mean that the king is coming?

[@SirFancyPotato]

@@Dado_nastro possibly

[@Atgold]

@@Dado_nastro*giraffe

[@Caketurtle7]

@@Atgoldlol

[@reed6514]

Woah! I thought you had 2 cameras, but nah you just horizontal flipped the video. I dig it.

[@matheuscabral9618]

true lmao

[@Nae_ex]

Wait that's really smart

[@vogonp4287]

KZbin's algorithm likes consistently uploaded content, which is tricky with game development. So, it's kind of an uphill battle even if things are going well.

[@ipenutbrudda8823]

Very underrated keep it up man ur gonna make it

[@Agent_Zoey_Morgan]

I loved the way you talked about overediting videos and then proceeded to flip the camera horizontally with every cut in the video lol

[@phantomgabe5374]

Great video, some suggestions i would make is having some kind of a background but besides that a great start to your commentary videos!

[@superpenguinyt]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@tailmo6349]

as someone who watched dani and "grew up" on sam hogan, i truely believe the two were the most influential on the platform as a whole, a lot of the "I made X in Y Hours!" game modders, game devs etc were born just because of dani's popularity. sam was one of the first to make game dev entertaining and the first to make explaining game mechanics interesting, for me at least. then came dani which as you said, bridged the game-ers to the game-devs. so i 100% beleive these two are the most influential ones on the platform

[@Skikopl]

I know Dani will be here watching this any minute now

[@elzeban]

Aaaaany minute now, see he came back! O No that just another video about him returning.

[@_EpikDuckGuy]

For how good quality your first commentary video is you are insanely underrated.

[@FabioGamingFG]

It's sad that so many are leaving, gamedev youtube is great and specially Dani who put a more humorous style into it, gave a lot of inspiration to people

[@OldRobloxRedux]

bro your so underrated that the subscribe button didn't want to even glow. but still yet im subbing

[@Tybek1]

For milking this shit. He is overrated

[@OldRobloxRedux]

@@Tybek1 bro, stupid it was a month ago

[@RedStoneMatt]

And the ones who stayed became cringe, like Polymars who went from awesome C++ game dev challenges to Scratch, ChatGPT & Memes

[@perplexing9100]

great commentary man :D

[@superpenguinyt]

Thanks!

[@Dantonfall]

Dani has been my inspiration for my career so far. He makes Coding look so fun, and he helped me realize learning it is. I'm in the process of learning HTML and CSS first, and I've got almost everything down right now, then I'm going to switch to Game Development coding soon. I'm sad that he left, but I'm happy what he left me with. I have one life-goal at some point I'll do, that being if Dani doesn't finish Karlson, then I'll finish it. For all the Milk Lovers.

[@superpenguinyt]

Wish you all the luck in this world!

[@Turtle20305]

How would you give someone advice on how to go about learning code? I want to do it but confused as to where to start

[@vimic3]

@@Turtle20305 watch brocode tutorials those helped, or i started making roblox games

[@magicpenuts6934]

GameDev is a pretty big grind. worse than gaming or anything then u have to edit the video. Karlson last update was 17 January 2024

[@magicpenuts6934]

btw @superpenguin keep up the content your doing better then most peope.

[@flash5791]

that was probably a Auto Update, Steam also has Auto Updates and dev update the last official was in december 2023

[@belowfactual]

Got a karlson ad before watching but he is making a big game/video as you could see his next video would be his 69th video and he has been commenting on a handful of videos even a year from when he left meaning he is active and not dead or done but it’s very unclear he could comeback but it’s impossible to tell when he will return

[@superpenguinyt]

Great point, but I'm not sure if the Karlson ads are real. Many people in the comments here have said that they are fake. Watch out and be careful!

[@MightyGoldCR]

Great video bro. I love the effort put in to your content. Keep up the good vids

[@Puzzl3]

Yooooo Dope video Edit: Wait where's the server???

[@sebbog]

so cool that you put the video under creative commons with reuse allowed, i hate copyright. :)

[@Milbyte11]

For Dani specifically his videos are targeted at kids mainly, and as much as myself and some other people would love explanations if his code, apparently "boring, shut up nerd" brings him more views. where im going with this, it brought kids into gamedev, and now what is popular is no longer what has good concept or gameplay. It is what looks good on a video (just see the hundreds of i made a game in 1 day videos). This just ended up with hundreds of unfinished tech demos that on surface appear cool but break down the longer you think about it. The most succesful games are never those that make an entertaining video, geometry dash only has a couple sneek peeks for future updates, deltarune has a few newsletters that expand the lore, but otherwise dont really tell you anything about the game, terraria has monthly steam posts with sneek peeks, factorio has weekly, very technical FFS, and team cherry has gone completely radio silent with silksong. The difference being that the video (if there even is any) is made for the game while the other 20 gamedev channels are other way around, they make a game for a video. the only exceptions i think would be jonas tyroller, who actually makes good games while also being entertaining, and sebastian lague for non video game things.

[@kyperactive]

As far as I can tell, Dani has focused on Game Development, the website which details his progress is still updated so... he aint gone yet. If it finishes, I can bet there will be a new video about it.

[@MEx2-1]

I saw a 1 month old Dani comment on a video called "Why My Indie Game Got So Popular So Quickly" By Zoteling

[@superpenguinyt]

You're right! Thanks for informing me

[@TheOnlyBoxy]

This was on my homepage with 1k views yesterday, what the hell

[@Nate14567]

Dani is still active on his discord, and his next upload is being talked about

[@imparcialista]

I really liked this video, congratulations for the work friend

[@denisekyles4299]

seeing him use matpat's iconic phrase "but thats just a theory!" after he quit is just so painful

[@nugget6552]

He hasnt quit he said hes 90 percent done with karlson but he wont upload for another 2 months

[@justlimeguy]

oh shit Brackeys is BACK!!

[@dmangamesSTUDIO]

Cool commentary video! I enjoyed it, but I really don't think they'll be out of game dev forever.

[@jk0273]

Damn I miss them

[@haybail7618]

i can't believe there's a whole new genre of reasons why dani left youtube videos

[@Gatorboy5678]

I miss Dani and especially Sam Hogan 😔

[@kozmobotgames]

After many famous game devs left KZbin, I am a new game developer who is going to help future game creators!

[@AselectirYT]

Dani is just on his training arc rn

[@GiGi.Studios]

No worries guys ! I ll go nowhere ! 😅

[@dyllanreddi1687]

And brackey's came back like yesterday or something

[@Propulsion4]

I think that the one that hurt me the most when they quit was Sam. He made me want to become a coder, which I now am. Very sad, same with dani

[@aichaamara392]

We all miss Dani )’: And we miss Sam hogan and there is one guy that left a long time ago as well Kento bento

[@Crazy_dave.]

Ayo is that darkcloud music in the backround?

[@patron1589]

Nice vidéo

[@josephdabunny]

i just feel like the fact that he deleted a video to make his channle have 68 videos one less then the funny number, means that maybe he wants that special video to be the release of karolson and if thats the case then yeah, its a single person working on a massive game, it might even take years to finish depending on breaks or whatnot. but not only that, i figure him not interacting online is mainly just because if he does all people are gonna say is "you working on karolson" or somthing like that, so i figure even if it takes years that that might be why.

[@CarbonDev]

Next gen gamedevs boutta go crazy tho

[@JayCode_dev]

yeah like carbondev

[@patypotato5522]

Brackeys is back!!

[@UnknownUser049]

maybe dani was the friends we made along the way

[@Phobos1776]

I approve of this message 👍

[@yousufV1]

brackeys is back

[@cnarbayramic234]

but unfortunately he is making godot tutorials now

[@PlaceHolder20]

His videos inspired me to start gamedev

[@FrRoseAngel]

atleast we still got code bullet

[@RainDev.]

yo, i just wanted to say. This video is actually amazing, i watched the whole way through because it didnt take you 30 minutes to change topics! I enjoyed this video with your style of commentary. Instead of the distracting youtuber voice you speak calmly and clear. Thank you!

[@Superhot-aFlames]

If you look at kalex’s video, he commented that he would come back this month

[@barry_wastaken]

I'm waiting for dani's comment

[@kayuwastaken]

chill our with the hand movement but other than that great vid

[@philip.stigaard]

Yeah it's very distracting

[@mudwizardjimbo]

i miss dani dani was great dani was the best this place would still be great if people like dani kept coming up but all of our best fall to early rip dani you will be missed

[@yousefkhouryduckman]

fosho, this is a great video honestly man

[@dorkmario6730]

Really good video, but why does the footage of you keep mirroring?

[@untemi0]

Brackeys is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

[@CodySky]

3:25 so would this be considered a game theory or a film theory? Both?

[@superpenguinyt]

Maybe both?

[@owenhogge284]

There was a video 4 months ago talking about where he went and he commented saying he is 90% and said he was gonna post in 6 months, that was 4 months ago

[@FriPeGuSi]

I think you should look into the camera when speaking. That just makes it more natural to watch, but other than that it's a great video

[@user-dt8vk8nn9h]

This probably isn't true for developers but when I got the platinum trophie for the game terraria I felt burnt out and didn't want to play it any time soon, but when my friend asked me to make a new world I said sure and I was back at it playing. This is why I think Dani or any other burnt out developers are going to come back you'll just have to wait.

[@watercat1248]

I don't really know what happened to those channel's. But as game development myself I'm able to understand how how hard can by to make all those stuff. Enway I have plan in some time to start to make my own video toutorias and devlog and stuff like that However I'm not completely sure wean I will start I'm personally focus on making one off my dream project, And the KZbin channel it's not the main focused to my. The are I few reason I have plan to make make those videos content in KZbin 1. I have find many techniques tips and tricks that I will like to seared 2. They other reason is wail spend so much time to make this project, I don't think many people know my project so if make contact like those it may gat more follower's 3. Even if make KZbin videos on those topics I will upload video in whatever I feald. For my make KZbin channel it's not live gole it's just extra Way to sherds the stuff I'm working and sherd same stuff I don't relely Care if have a lot of followers and stuff like that, Also like said event wean I started to make those types of video's don't expect to consisted I personally work whatever I feald like, There is a reason for this both my game developer KZbin and whatever else I do it's just hobby not job and I work alone, Because off this I work if want wean and if job I will work wean I have free time. After all for both game development and the KZbin channel I just plan to make because I want to, I don't make any money for this projects and I don't know know or care how many followers I will get

[@superpenguinyt]

Making a dream project is challenging, wish you luck!

[@watercat1248]

@@superpenguinyt thenks and yes and it's not easy challenge trust my.

[@PeteTheGamer962]

I was really lucky and got a few months in the "GAME LAB" game jam.

[@liamblancogordon3669]

Btw I saw on a comment of a video just like this one dani say something around "I'm like 70% done with my new video". but it wasn't that recent😞😞

[@superpenguinyt]

We might just have to wait until 2069 I guess

[@adhikari777]

Brackeys is back🔥

[@djjashman999]

i did some game dev back in my day too but i work untill im satisfied with my work even if it takes months

[@Femboy_Frosty]

On some of Dani’s videos he’s made replays to some comments that implies he’s still most likely working on karlson if any of you didn’t know

[@absolutemadness9955]

What video specifically

[@XxXpotatogamingXxX]

anybody have any news about Mythic Legion? he uploaded like two awesome videos and then quit. he commented on his latest video (almost 4 years old) like two years ago saying he was still alive but in college but hasnt made any updates since

[@c0npl3xOP]

I think it’s the fact that people won’t leave you alone if you are making a game. They’ll ask you “Os the game done!” “ when’s the next upload” “make this make that”

[@TheGarryFish]

I saw in another video, that he is working on Karlson and continuing to update the steam page! Also he commented on that video saying he was 90% finished karlson and that he will comeback after he finishes it!

[@fireking1786]

It’s hard especially for solo game devs another example is the owner of bee swarm on roblox

[@chedo191]

Dani commented on a video just like this lol

[@BoneMeal676]

It's so sad that all of them are just quitting, there's a channel probably not a lot of people have heard of called Codeer he also dissapeared.

[@pixelx9165]

Brackey is back

[@thecubeku]

brakey has arived my friend lets wait the trio is pulling back up to save us

[@callyral]

why does your camera keep flipping

[@Brig_rat]

There is also a youtuber called Mythic Legion He uploaded 1 video 3 years ago got 8 MILLION views and was newer seen again

[@GehadAiman-ry1kh]

Yeah

[@Ybot76]

Regarding Dani, the co owner of his discord server has confirmed several times he is working on a project and will come back.

[@darthleviyt]

avatar nick games left to he was very good it was dani but for younger people and made a nintendo game that was taking a while to release he left around dani left but i dont focus on him as much as dani but i should

[@Darien636]

bro i didnt know dani quit youtube i used to watch him alll the time..

[@LHF321]

i doubt dani quit when his next video is gonna be his 69th video

[@kaneymon]

Ive been trying to make games and videos related to it and my god is it so hard. he made some great games and videos i can only assume he was in perma crunch.

[@Pestilince]

pretty sure dani’s channel got hacked as i am seeing ads for karlson from his second channel and it lead to a scam (pretty sure it’s a scam) website

[@craas6915]

Dani didn’t quit if you look closely enough you notice his video count 68 by removing one of his videos

[@majintrunky6255]

Also, not really related but there was the whole issues with "fees" concerning *Unity* where you had to pay 0.20 $ I think at each installation of your game around September 2023

[@DragonsTGG]

I think he's waiting to post his 69th video (maybe even in 2069)

[@hamringsad]

I bet he is just working with those other devs to max out the potential of Karlson.

[@thedude4063]

Dani is still working on Karlson. He's said he's getting close to finishing it

[@dastranjer9274]

Brackeys comment at the start aged like milk

[@BBjkxD]

heyy im tryna join ur discord server but i cant find it can u place a link to it in ur next video?

[@Hematie023]

BRACKEYS IS BACK

[@virus_idk]

Okay so my theory is that dani is making Karlson from scratch because there's a chance he (like many other devs) is moving from Unity to other engines. But that's just a theory A KZbin THEORY

[@user-ru4bb2cg2c]

dani and sam hogon were my fave game devs soo I was really upset

[@Jacob-Noon]

dani will come back i miss u

[@Demonic_One]

Brackeys is back!!!!!!!!!

[@thexky7566]

no we wont be able to see the 69nth DANI VIDEOOOO