Seriously? 2+ weeks past the final day in a month-long release window and no clue when the game will be released?
This update cycle is a great example of the reasons why so many indie devs fail: Poor management, both of game development and of player expectations.
You could pin it on the lack of open communication, on scope creep, on failure to meet deadlines, on perceived laziness/complacency, or on whatever else. But all of that roots back to bad management.
It doesn't matter if "something came up" or if "the update would end on a cliffhanger" or if it "wouldn't meet the expectations" of the creator's perfectionism.
Just push the update.
Let it be incomplete, let there be scenes missing, let it not fully wrap up the story as originally intended. And apologize to fans, with a promise that the next update will be better.
And THEN, plan properly.
Write the entire story first, before doing anything else. Do not start with renders, or environment design, or with sound effects, or with programming.
Write. The damn. Story.
Then count what you need to do: Count the scenes, the rough number of total renders, the programming time, whatever else you need to do, and add it all together to formulate an accurate timeline. Then add 15 - 20% buffer time, because it's always better to underpromise and overdeliver than the inverse.
Then - and here's the trick - once you start making it, DO. NOT. CHANGE. THE. SCOPE.
No additional scenes, even if they'd be "really cool."
No wacky jokes added, even if you think that they'd be hilarious.
No minigames, no in-between scenes to tie up story beats, no extras.
Let there be plot holes, and rendering errors, and unfinished story threads.
Just make the damn update, give updates on progress, and tell people IN ADVANCE if something about the timeline is going to change, and do it with as much notice as possible. Do the work, release the update, then give the hotfix a day or two later. Then take a few days off.
"But it's incomplete!" Yeah, and that's fine. Do you know what else it is?
Finished.
Say what you want about imperfection, but there are tens of thousands more "imperfect" pieces of artwork hanging in museums than "almost finished" ones.
Everything that you believe that the update should have had can go out in the next update, or in a mini update in between. And people will prefer that two hundred times over a repeated hype-letdown cycle when you set a window and then fail to honor your word.
Oh, and I'm a former 6+ month patron, for anyone curious. I would be a current patron, but, y'know; this whole post and all. Also the whole story arc at the hotel room was...deeply unsettling, not to mention hamfisted, insensitive, and entirely unwanted.
