I understand why people are mad at the slow progress of this development, but what are you suggesting they should do in the ideal scenario? I disagree with the take that this is pure milking regardless, the team behind this has managed to deliver Noxian Nights to completion - an excellent game.
The start of this game is also unique and excellent in many ways, but now there haven't been much progress for a long time. This phenomenon seems to be reoccuring on games here, and I can see why. I myself have considered releasing a game Im developing on my spare time and possibly having a subscribe star/patreon, but I've been reluctant to release it publically because I believe doing so might put more pressure on me than I need. In general I believe people underestimate how much work it is to develop a game, something that would increase exponentially which management of social media channels, marketing, fan responses, special rewards to patreons etc.
If I would dedicate that much time to develop games *with* my current day job I would have no spare time at all. I would also need to break up with my girlfriend to free more time. While the money seems good at first glance (I don't know how much they are making, split three ways) its most likely not good enough for you to quit your job to work on a porn game, even if you would, its a pretty big risk if patreons would disapear one day.
So these guys have developed a solid game before and are in the process of devoping another one, the problem is just that life sometimes get in the way. How do you justify to people that you need to spend all of your free time developing a porn game? Its a tricky situation. Of course they could put the game on hold, but then you would have to call out to people again to start donating if you would pick it up again? Idk, just my thoughts
Well, my suggestions have been consistent ever since i started posting here and i still stand by them: planning, managing and communication.
Hreinn is a small team and as you said, life happens too. There have been plenty of very valid reasons for delays in the past. But what did they do when those happened? Silence for at least a month, then they say that there will be a delay, another silence and when the release drops we find out what happened from the release post.
For an indie dev that relies on the good will of it's audience, this is not a good method. Ideally they need to post at least once per week on their patreon and they have to be upfront about progress, issues, complications and plans. Not for us in this forum. For their patrons. From what i've seen here, even the people on their discord spend months in the dark and there are very few people who are willing to put up with that. Hreinn would make more money if they just improved their communication.
But well, what should they write? I sympathize with anyone who is bad at communication, because i am too. So what is the solution?
Make a plan.
For example, first week they finalize the details of the contents for the next patch and make a post about the rough plans.
On the second week Nomo draws a bare minimum sketch for the first scene so Monsinne can start planning out the dialogue and NDS checks if this quest will need anything special in technical terms like a new mechanic and prepares for it with templates.
On the third week they could start the real drawing, writing, coding, etc.
And so on.
If they are moving along this timeline then just write "doing well, see you guys on discord or next week", of something is late then they will already know and they can write "well, task x will take a few extra days, but the others are progressing well, so it shouldn't be a big problem. will keep you updated, bye".
These posts write themselves and everyone can make informed decisions about their stance on the development and not just wait months and pray.
I honestly don't know how much time is required for each of these jobs. I can't write, code or draw to save my life. But if i, an absolutely random nobody can point out that the modular scenes took an unexpectedly long time to do in 0.12 and some of it had to be cut and now 0.13 is supposed to have modular scenes in the bar too, so expect a delay and cut, then how come Hreinn got surprised again and didn't make this last announcement back in November or at the very least February.
I wrote that these smaller releases can be the right choice, but right away they are paired with the wrong execution.
Most of my suggestions would require 10-30 minutes each week to implement at most. I don't know if they can work more hours, but i do know that they could work smarter and it would benefit them at least as much as it would benefit us.
