The success of a project does not depend on the developer alone mate, if it does, then there will be a lot of successful projects cus I believe no developer wants to start a project and fail on purpose,
The success of a project is tied to Many factors and this factors are all focused on one common goal, "success of the project", if one part does its job well and the other part fail in its duties, there's a chance the project might still end up a failure, and to give you a hint of what I mean, community is very essential to the success of any project just like the developers is.