Maybe someone like Dennis Nedry (Jurassic Park). Wanted more money; didn't get it. So, had the game rigged with a destructive code in case demands for a pay hike were not met. I guess that's one way of explaining the sudden explosion of bugs.
I find that really hard to believe. Unless i'm mistaken, intentionally sabotaging a project with intentionally malicious code, then demanding money to fix it amounts to blackmail, which is 100% illegal. I'm not legal expert though, maybe it's different with private projects. It also seems unlikely to me that they would risk their job for such a limited income cap. Working as a programmer for a private hrpg is probably more desirable than a regular coding job, so it seems weird they would jinx it in favor of more money, when they'd probably make more at a normal job. I don't think anyone at hreinn is intentionally malicious, at worst i'd say they may intentionally delay releases to get another round of patreon income. Which is shitty, no doubt, but also could be a result of incompetence as opposed to money-scumming.
As someone who works full time as part of a 10+ person team, projects often get bottlenecked by a single person, and you have to often pick up their slack if you want to get the work done in time. With coding, it's probably the hardest thing to make up, as I'd wager only one of the three team members is an experienced coder. Problems occur at every stage with any project, and constantly harassing people about it rarely makes it go faster, that's why i stopped posting on their patreon page. I bitch on here because I very much doubt hreinn reads this forum, I'd advise them not to, and people who complain on here usually aren't patrons anyway, so i'm just airing my grievances. It doesn't really cause any harm, and it makes me feel better.
Viressa is 100% right though, mass cancellation won't cause they to work on it faster, it'll just slow things down more. It'll only get the game canceled, and with how many trash 3dcg games are flooding the market, it's a good thing to support quality 2d artwork. The only way to speed up progress in my mind would be for them to be able to hire another person, which is way beyond their current financial capabilities.
While it's beyond aggravating to have delay after delay after delay, with literally every update, we just gotta be patient.
At least hreinn sticks to their vision, they haven't completely abandoned all pretense in favor of squeezing as much money as possible out of the last breath of their game. Looking at you, riot games.