Um. Which games? I have played hundreds here, and the vast majority have 400 or 500 image per update. Once in a blue moon, maybe 700 or 800. I don't know any game on F95 that releases with 2000 renders in 2 or 3 months.
Exactly. I support several games here, and even the games I support, I go to F95 for status and updates. The forums here are a lot more fun, and the community here is more engaged than the comments sections on Patreon. And the Discords are too disorganized, and tends to be more about chatting about what music the users are listening to, or comments about other games, or spreading memes.
All the games I support, I found out about them here. The only time I ever go to Patreon is when I read here than an update is out, but it isn't here yet. Otherwise, even the games I support, I use the links here like everyone else. I think of F95 users as potential supporters. Sure, I bet 80% never end up giving anything, but with 10s of thousands of users online each day, even if 20% actually subscribe to 1 or 5 developers, that is a lot. So, the developers really miss out on a lot of support if they stay away from the forums here. The devs that are active on F95 have a lot more loyal fans and support than those like Bluecat who just show up to vent every few months.
You know, I am sympathetic to the devs here, because making a VN is a lot harder than most people realize. However, I also understand those here that are frustrated, and most of their points are pretty valid. BlueCat's communication about what he is actually doing each month has been pretty poor, I think everyone would agree. He is one of the more secretive developers I have seen, and gets very defensive when people ask questions, without actually answering the questions asked. I think that is what leads to skepticism as to what is really going on. And while I do appreciate Skummy filling in, really, it is not the same to hear from a third party rather than a member of the dev team. Even if a dev doesn't like F95, which is their choice (though they lose a lot of support by staying away), they should at least post on their Patreon what is going on, and BlueCat mostly does not do that. And charging $5 a month, just for status updates, is unreasonable in my opinion, especially in BlueCat's case where the status updates are frankly, worthless.
I know things happen, but I do have to admit I have a hard time understanding why a straight VN like Echhi Sensei without any rendering needed has such slow updates. Maybe the person that is sick is the only one that knows how to use Illusion's StudioNeo? Really, the same amount of work as a Daz-based VN, should have 10 times the monthly output. Maybe it is the dialog that is holding it up? However, the writing is really not very sophisticated compared to most of the better VNs here. Basically you pursue everyone, everyone is interested, and the personalities of each character are nearly identical.
It is what it is. It does seem unusual that the lead developer, BlueCat, is so dependent on his team members that he can't step in and fill in. Usually, the lead developer knows everything necessary, and just relies on his team members for the tedious posing, rendering, proofreading, and debugging work. Maybe BlueCat should use this time to learn what he doesn't know, so he can keep the VN going if team members drop out.