Lately I've been wondering the worth of my integrity as both a game developer and a creative in general. I've always tried to stand by the principle that every big project I create and put out onto the internet is something that I'm proud of and made for the saking of making. I've considered multiple times dropping my integrity and making something purely for the purpose of profit, such as a clickbait listicle channel on Youtube or a f2p mobile game with ads and microtransactions, and I'm considering going down that avenue since money has been rather tight.

I've been debating if I should go down that path or not. Sure, it could be an easy money source, but it wouldn't be work that I'm proud of. On the other hand, I have ideas for multiple big, expensive projects that I neither have the time, money, or connections for. Making a shameless cashgrab project could be the key to earning funds for proper games that I'd like to make.

I've also been debating whether I'd associate myself with these potential cashgrab projects or publish them under a different name.

I dunno, it's been something that I've been considering a lot more lately considering how shit the job market is. It wouldn't be a project that I'm proud of, but everyone needs to make money, right?

I'd love to hear everyone else's opinions on their integrity as creatives and game devs

Integrity's for those privileged enough to not need to care about where their next meal comes from. Pride doesn't put food on the plate.

Sure, cashgrabs can negatively tarnish your reputation if you're a relatively well-known personality. If the creators of Dwarf Fortress went ahead and published an mtx-filled gacha game, it'd strike people as them selling out, and with good reason - their actions can erode the trust their userbase has in them. The same applies for big companies, too, and to an even larger extent if they had no history of doing anything like it. However, that's because they have other avenues for earning money that are not generally available to smaller creators.

I mean, just look at Hello Games for an example to the contrary - prior to the release of No Man's Sky, they were pretty much milking their existing franchise. Sure, it's not exactly a cashgrab, but it wasn't exactly something that would inspire confidence to an outsider.

Or, for a non-game example, look at Buzzfeed - their renown for bullshitty, clickbait listicles hasn't precluded their Buzzfeed News arm from being regarded as a high quality source. Given that the former subsidizes/funds the latter, it would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater to stop it.

Let your works speak for themselves, and if you really gain a following as a personality (which is again, not very common or easy from what I understand) then you can use alternative means such as soliciting donations to cover expenses. But until then, don't fret over whether your reputation could be tarnished.