First, a huge difference between Big-O Software last year and Big-O Software this year is that both Ryan and I have completed college and have been thrust into the real world. In order to survive in the real world, we have both taken jobs that consume massive amounts of our time that in the past at least partially could be devoted to the support and development of our software. Spare time has been scarce, and it is key for Big-O Software, as it is a hobby that pays us nothing. This part, however, we were willing to work around, so that we could continue to provide quality software for ourselves and our users.
Second, over the past few months, Big-O Software has been attacked repeatedly in various ways, including telephone, email, and through the website. Recently, with the impending release of AIM+ 3.0, the individuals responsible for these attacks have taken the liberty of posting personal information about us on the internet, and the frequency and intensity of the attacks have grown exponentially. We have had a lot of fun working with the users to develop AIM+, but if this price we have to pay for our effors, then it is simply not worth it to us. We have invested a lot of time and effort into AIM+, without expecting or getting anything tangible back. There is nothing wrong with that, as we never expected anything other than our own personal use of the software. However, we are now experiencing very tangible negative effects. This is the unacceptable part; it automatically made up our minds for us.
In conclusion, Big-O Software has indefinitely postponed the further development of AIM+. We plan to continue to work out bugs in the current version, including AIM 5.x compatibility, but at this point these are our final plans for the future of AIM+. (edit: this statement is wholly incorrect, see below)
hkSFV will continue to be fully supported, and we already have plans for future releases. Big-O Software also has plans and ideas for other new applications that we expect you will enjoy even more than AIM+.
To those who have supported us, in any way, throughout the development of AIM+: thank you, you made it very fun while it lasted, and we're sorry for the disappointment that this must bring. It certainly was not the way we had planned on celebrating AIM+'s 1 year anniversary. Unfortunately, the recent negativity and personal invasions have made this troubling decision an easy one for us to make.
Ryan wrote:I wrote the above with Mark, but somewhere along the way one important part got misleading.
Contrary to what it says above, we don't have plans to release any more AIM+, including bug fixes or compatibility updates. What the above should have said is that it's something we're considering. But I think that, at this point, another 2.x release of AIM+ would simply be a huge disappointment to all.