I read here a lot, and occasionally respond, for more than three years, but for the past week the place has seemed like a clinical depression treatment department. Nothing has really changed with the dev.
L&P has always been very slow, always spent more time than planned in advance and its priorities were always clear. His average output always ranged from 8 to 5 renders per day, depending on the troubles he had at the time, so half an hour fiddling with the lighting of a scene did not sound so absurd to me and did not surprise me at all. This has been the case for a long time, and I have no doubt it will remain the case for a long time to come.
I by the way have no problem with that. Obviously I would like the whole workflow to be much faster, but I would not want fewer images for each scene or lower quality renders. When I hear that the event of the second side job has doubled in terms of the number of renders, I am actually pleased. So far every event that has grown far beyond what L&P has planned in advance has been hot, and I am willing (this is of course my opinion only) to "sacrifice" another month of delay and not recieve another regular event.
Don't get me wrong, I also have criticism for L&P, mainly for not always keeping his written promises, and never deleting / changing his goals (regarding the help he tries to get), but I do not think that is the case because he is a milker or a liar. I think it's just because he isn't really good at marketing... As an example - most of the criticism would have disappeared completely if only it had not been indicated in advance that the VN is expected to have 30 playable days planned ahead. Without it, 90% of the claims that the VN will never come to an end would have never been born at all.
Beyond that, my problem is mostly with those who disguise their claims as criticism, but along the way spice it up with vicious bites and then complain that "there are those here who confuse criticism with hate".
As I see it, without the somewhat frustrating personality of L&P we would not have gotten this VN. True, he does not know how to accept criticism even when it is written as a supporting one. True, he is unable to imagine working together with several people, he works very slowly, he sometimes exaggerates a bit with the text he writes and he is obsessed with the smallest details in the scenes he create. But this is the situation, and it's much much (much) better than the other one, in which there will be nothing here, because if you think L&P will change his workflow, you probably do not know people with OCD (sorry L&P). And it's highly likely that L&P personality as a whole is the reason why this VN gained so much popularity. And off course it can be much popular, but then it would not be Awam as we know and (hopefully) love. This VN is easily distinguished from others in so many aspects and I personally don't want it to change. I believe that collectibles, social media and such is not suitable for this kind of a VN. Maybe it will add volume to it, but it will be extremely superfluous in my opinion.
PS. L&P, if you read this, do yourself a favor - if you really want it - adopt a dog. It's just a matter of making a decision, and it will not really hurt your productivity...
