I assumed it was an outright scam for a while but Helius paying for Denuvo suggests otherwise, that is not cheap (or popular with gamers) so he really seems to think he has something worth dumping $10-25k per month into protecting. Similarly the online only requirement doesn't seem like the sort of thing you'd do if it was a pure Patreon scam where they conduct the bare minimum work and pander to subscribers to keep the money coming in.
I suppose the one caveat to that is that he may have convinced Denuvo not to charge until the game is "released," which would be in line with their standard terms:
If he never actually plans on releasing the game on Steam then perhaps it's all just a charade, but I think that explanation is hellishly convoluted.
The simpler explanation by far is that he's just an idiot that lied about his experience when starting the project and is essentially trying to put a full game together with a team of modders with no chain of command and nobody with any project management experience to take the reins. That would explain why they flip flop all over the place in terms of scope and direction, do alright with assets and animations but can't implement any even moderately complicated gameplay system or design ux worth a damn etc.
Hilarious project either way though. Almost worth the $36 just to watch it unravel in slow motion over the years.
