I think the dev's problem generally looks like this, from my personal perspective as someone who is relatively creative on the road myself.
Too much at once: The dev tries to do too much at once and take as many people with him as possible. Where I come from there is this idiom: Too many cooks spoil the broth.
The Timeline: As already mentioned, the timeline is a bit of a mess so far. I've talked about the bullet wound often enough and I don't think anyone wants to read it anymore. I think a timeline with dates and events in his history would help him a lot. The dev wouldn't even have to publish this but as his own help. Also some research for certain things can't hurt, other than the gunshot wound.
I also think it would help the dev to get people on board who would be more critical of his work. I don't know the dev enough to judge him, but a lot of people can't handle criticism, even if it's presented in a purely factual way, and either get defensive-trotsy and say to themselves now more than ever, or go into hiding and bury their heads in the sand.
In my D&D group we are two core DMs. I've felt it myself in the last few months, our second DM has too, and even people like Matt Mercer struggle with it: creative work can burn you out incredibly fast and hard, and depression and other mental health issues can happen very quickly when you've burned yourself out, and in the worst case scenario it can lead to some kind of problems. And I would argue that it makes no difference whether you play D&D or create a VN. For me personally, it was a little helpful to take a break for a few months. Am I over the hill again in the meantime? I don't think so, but at least I'm back to the point where I can work on the stuff for 1-2 hours every day.
What to think about the preview image of post #2890. We don't know yet how it will look after the revision, but here's my impression:
The location looks like ne kind of spa or resort to me. What I just have to ask myself again: Does our protagonist really have time for something like this?
If we go purely by the optics, then this VN is on a very high level. However, I agree with the article that the dev should communicate more. As I said, it's not always easy to deal with criticism, especially if it's not helpful, however, I think such exchanges can only help to get a different perspective.
Last but not least, I think that as a newbie somewhere, be it VN or D&D adventures, you should not set yourself the goal of creating a legendary epic. For learning the basics, like pacing the story, I think standard is easier and better. The standard premise had provided enough ideas.
