Yours and the other users concerns are perfectly reasonable. The amount of routes is a bit crazy compared to some of the other indie VNs out there. This game is an admittedly ambitious project where the amount of choices is thematically in line with the type of story I wanted to tell. I suppose the story could be pruned down to 12 characters, but in the end I suppose all the characters have grown on me and their stories (even more so than a month ago) are becoming more intertwined. I'm certainly not opposed to the idea of a reduced cast which eventually gets filled in later, though.
Let me touch on this quote specifically to provide some information about the development process.
The basic story for each character route is contained in a spreadsheet, essentially completed but with wiggle room for new ideas/branches that come up. This is supplemented by a massive flowchart containing each day and character scene with conditionals. This flowchart is the one used for the official walkthroughs that are posted. Finally, a third document contains each character scene with which plot points, visual design notes and anything else that needs to happen. All three of these documents contain an outline for the entire game from beginning to endings. Using these, each character has a fully formed arc or as good a story as I can tell for this format.
So the weekly workload essentially boils down to checking the flowchart and determining which characters are going to get scenes in the next update. Then writing the dialogue and code for those scenes (the easiest part). Then rendering those scenes which are done (or writing more scenes while rendering). Do some testing once it's all finished and upload. Rinse and repeat.
I'm essentially just writing out pre-outlined scenes and doing renders with most of the heavy design lifting out of the way. Sometimes it gets a little tiresome, but watching the steady increase in people enjoy the game has been a joy to watch, especially compared to even a month ago. This is a project I want to finish because I think that the end product will be something that is unique, compelling and hopefully creates a few boners along the way!