Am i missing something ?
Just last month the team was burned out, failing to deliver the scenes, struggling with support and talking about shutting down. And now he is considering starting new project and hiring new artist?
Well - Perhaps it looked like that from the outside!
So, the whole team is kind of big considered how small the studio actually is. And the team have never been burned out, but there are up's and down's in development all the time, and in this case the CG team had a big delay last patch(not a burn out), which of cause gets to Starke a lot, because then he can't deliver on promises to his customers - Which he expressed on the podcast.
There have also been other things like patreons declining a ton over the last years time or perhaps more - Which was what Starke also talked a lot about on the podcast.... and that things was actually going in the wrong direction.
A lot have changed since then(in very few days), there have been 2 cross-promotions, where one was from TechnoBrake which was really huge, and the patreons have climbed with around 75 new people in a short period of time!!! which is freaking huge(For our team!) And stuff like this really motivates, there have not been so huge interest for the game in a long time - Even if its only 1$ patreons Starke is THRILLED!
Starke is also pushing lots of news out on twitter which have properly also helped in getting new patreons on board!
He also mentioned a couple of fans that have motivated him simply by pingponging ideas back and fort in regards to this new "Fleeting Iris IF" which really excites him a lot so he can play with his new HD script, and HD assets for the game. Which btw looks amazing!
And yeah Lawsuitincomming beat me to it with the new Naruto project - Which could be exactly what the studio needs to grow! Also remember none of these projects are set in stone yet- This is projects Starke wants to work on....... if the budget will allow it!