Again, they committed to a Patreon to fund their game, they aren't doing it for free. That comes with promises and commitments that they are not delivering on. They are getting MONEY for nothing. This isn't "oh $500 is nothing at all," they are being paid $500 monthly for something. This is them getting a free $500 payment over multiple months of no work, which is more like getting $2000 plus as they drag the months on. And again, they were making more and would be making more if they had good practices and were producing the product in good faith.I completely agree that they should be more transparent and post a quick update if they aren't going to be able to meet the release dates they announce. Or just a post saying they don't know when they will be able to get to it due to personal issues so their patrons aren't misled.
I'm not saying that you can't criticize if you aren't paying...just that this development duo certainly isn't getting rich off of $250 a month each. $250 a month doesn't do shit for you anywhere in the US, and they most certainly have to prioritize their day jobs and other responsibilities.
To me this game always seemed like a passion project of theirs, and passion projects have to come after your other responsibilities. They even give away an older version of the game on patreon completely free.
I've really enjoyed the 9 hours I put into the game so far and I hope they complete it, but personally I don't feel justified yelling at them to hurry up when I haven't spent a dime.
To your reference to the US, there are many places in the US where an extra free $500 a month would be so nice, but in the past this dev has expressed a big move flying from the war in Ukraine as one of their reasons for delay (which to previous points, would be an understandable reason for delay), I can tell you that money would go much further in basically all other parts of the world.
We, that is me and others, apparently not you, have spent more than a dime towards the commitments for a game that I agree has good content but by now should have much more or in the very least, communication.