Hah don't think there is a need to get that pessimistic, Love-Joint has always been really cool with their fans - they released the last episode of their previous game (for free) together with all the epilogues all at once.
They are currently busy with Shale Hill, so the next DH release will have to wait for a bit. Let's appreciate the fact that they are releasing it for free in the first place, and patiently wait.
This is the whole point, if you want to see things earlier, you support them on Patreon. On top of being able to kick the c*** out of Dennis, you also get plenty of bonus content etc.
Actually, there is a reason to get "that pessimistic". While LJ does technically release the episodes for free, they have made a habit of
extending the time between. For example, free episodes were supposed to be three (3) months behind the Patreon release. Go check DFD. It was three months for a while, but slowly and surely dragged out to a longer interval, that at some point was several months.
We have seen the same practice for this game. Free updates lagging behind the "announced" (if only by history) schedule. Of course, LJ is attributing the delay to the events of the past year (RIP Palmer. I might not have agreed with his scruples, but he did put himself out there as a DEV, agree with him or not). However, if that is the case, then why was ONLY episode 19 fully protected/share-blocked? It seems more to try to force the 'desperate' to subscribe than the stated mission of 'delivering free games'...
I truly WANTED to become a subscriber for the last game. But the plot shift, in addition to the release change, made me rethink that decision. Then LJ continued the delay tactics with this game.
Honesty/Integrity/Transparency are my biggest conditions to pledge a dev/group. Neither DfD NOR DH have fulfilled the 'It's free at
this point' narrative. This felt like switch-er-oo to me, thus I never finished DfD, and, for the record, have NEVER PLAYED DH. I had my doubts on its release, and those have been proven true: Delayed release cycle with no announcement WHY.
Watch what happens with Game 3. The free releases will be tightly coupled to the main releases, but over time, they will start to lag behind.