I think the most important thing is to keep your patrons and fans on the loop. Streaming your work, posting on your site, and so on. Release dates are fine when you're sure the update will be ready, otherwise don't give any because people don't like when those aren't met.
The worse thing a dev can do is going radio silence.
While I agree that communication is a top priority, I don't agree that release dates should be set when "you're sure the update is ready." That's working backwards and doesn't provide the structure that (I think) an artist needs.
When you're new at creating, I can understand open-ended release schedules. Until you know how long it takes to plan, render, animate, etc, how can you possibly gauge a release schedule? It could take a month? It could take 6 months? You have no way of knowing.
But as a creator improves and refines the process, they should be able to gauge how long their work will take. What can they accomplish in a month? What can they accomplish in 6 months? They should be able to look at their script and understand what it's going to require. Does this scene need 30 renders? 100 renders? Does the entire update need 300 renders?
One creator I follow structures his releases around what he can accomplish in 1 month. He knows that he can produce between 200 and 250 images in a month, give or take. So he balances that with the script by dedicating his efforts to the most important scenes, and saves effort where he can. It's this balance that makes it possible to have a firm release schedule. If he sees that the next scene/act of the story is going to be a big update, something like 400 to 600 images, he structures the script in a way that allows him to produce 200 images a month that lead to a natural break or cliffhanger. It then takes him 2 or 3 months to complete the scene, but because he structured the story to coincide with the release schedule, it all feels natural. When you are the lone creative force behind a game, you have all the power in the world to make sure that everything is balanced.
By no means do I think Stoper should be releasing updates monthly for Jessica O'Neil, that doesn't seem reasonable. But he should have a good idea of what he can accomplish in a month- and he has full creative control over the game. I think it makes total sense for a creator to set themselves a 3 month window (just an example) that they can then structure the story and images around. Maybe Stoper knows that in 3 months he can produce about 600 images and two animations (just examples that I'm pulling from the air). He can then compare that to the narrative in front of him. How far through the story will 600 images and two animations get him? Can he structure the script in a way that makes sense for this type of schedule?
Maybe all of this is the Type-A personality in me coming out. But I really do think that a release schedule helps the creator as much as it helps the fans. Any time that I'm given an open ended due date, it leads to endless tinkering and misguided priorities. As Stoper said earlier, in the last update he ended up taking a month or more on the dinner scene because he decided to make changes throughout the development process. He had originally thought it would take him
a week. That's a huge red flag. Yes, the scene turned out great, but if that sort of delay is representative to his style, he's losing MONTHS per release. It's the age old saying, don't let perfection be the enemy of good. If you can get to "perfect" in a short amount of time, then fine, but at some point you run into the law of diminishing returns.
