Karitha's Comeback: From Depression to Discovery

hey karitha fam 💚 i know this might come as a surprise seeing me post here again. honestly, i've been putting off writing this update because where do you even start when you basically disappeared for nearly two years? but i felt like i owed you all complete transparency about what happened, where i've been, and why i'm back now.

back in 2023, after everything we went through - having developers walk away with source codes and project funds, getting scammed multiple times, and just... hitting rock bottom as a non-technical founder who couldn't figure out how to rebuild - i made the decision to step away. i told everyone karitha was going into a paused state, but honestly, i was done. completely burnt out, broke, depressed, and questioning if this whole dream was just naive idealism.

so i disappeared. for almost two years, i stepped back from everything karitha-related. i know some of you probably felt abandoned, and i'm sorry for that. but i was in this place where i literally had no answers, no funds, no team, and no clear path forward. i was dealing with depression, doubt, uncertainty, and honestly just trying to figure out what the hell i was doing with my life.

sometimes you need to completely step away to see clearly. sometimes the pause isn't failure, it's preparation. all those setbacks, all that pain, that whole period of karitha being frozen... maybe it was supposed to happen so i could learn what we really needed to build.

The Journey Back

so let me tell you how we got here. in september, my previous team member who helped develop the game started building his own project, and i really wanted to help him out. i was thinking, why don't i make like a product hunt but for games? something easily accessible where people can actually find indie games. that's how i got the first prototype going - it was supposed to be this simple discovery thing to help my friend promote his new game.

but then something interesting happened. after having an opportunity to meet sal from solana australia and preparing my pitch for their ecosystem, i was looking at the main problem in gaming and indie development. and it hit me - the real problem isn't just development. it's discovery. there are indie developers creating games that nobody ever finds. that's the actual problem we needed to solve.

so today i've launched an mvp where you can explore games, filter through them, and actually find what you want to play. i've decided to continue building in public because honestly, with deadlines closing and me constantly reverting choices, transparency seems like the only way forward.

The Solana Connection

but here's what's got me really excited about this whole solana thing. through building nextgame and submitting it to their hackathon, i've connected with sal and the head of solana australia. these people aren't just technically brilliant - they're genuinely good people who host regular events and are actually interested in helping projects like ours succeed. sal and the team there have this vision for supporting real innovation, not just hype.

i've been given this opportunity by the current tools we have now to develop a web app that's meant to help projects like karitha in web3 actually succeed. and here's the thing - i'm submitting this project to a solana hackathon, and i want to use this as an opportunity to bring attention and raise funds to allow me to rebuild karitha properly this time.

because let's be real - sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble. after spending hours and hours on karitha, having developers who took all the reserves and source codes, being left without funds and barely able to pay for new developers, you get stuck in this place where you literally can't do anything. it's like being trapped with a vision but no way to execute it.

Why Now Is Different

but now god has given me this opportunity to come back once more. and i believe after everything i've been through, everything i'm doing now, this is the perfect time for us to fight together. our first step of recovery is to get recognized at this hackathon as a promising project. and also to get the fastest social growth we can manage.

this is our opportunity to bring karitha back to life. with the funds from this seed round, i can migrate karitha to solana, bring our experienced godot developer back, and finally deliver on the vision we all believed in from the beginning. solana is the future of gaming infrastructure, and together we can make this work.

during those two years away, dealing with depression, doubt, uncertainty, processing being screwed over by developers... i never stopped thinking about karitha. but i needed time to heal and figure out how to actually make this work. and now, with all these new ai tools that have emerged, i'm finally in a position to build prototypes and products as a non-developer founder. the tools exist now that didn't exist before, and that changes everything.

i know some of you might be thinking "here we go again" or wondering if you can trust me after i disappeared for so long. and honestly, those are fair questions. but this time is different. this time i have a clear path, real connections with the solana ecosystem, the right tools to build as a non-technical founder, and most importantly - i've learned from every single mistake.

karitha isn't dead. it's just been waiting for the right moment, the right team, and the right infrastructure to rise again. and after two years away, after healing, learning, and finding the right opportunity - i genuinely think that moment is now.

this is my comeback. this is karitha's comeback. and if you're willing to give us another chance, i promise this time we're going to do it right. with love, hope, and renewed determination, amir