I love Irredeemable's writing, and the witty and comedic voice of the Narrator and those occasional and hilarious breaches of the fourth wall really sold me on Teacher's Pets when I first played it several months ago. Teacher's Pets was the game that introduced me to the slew of similar lewd games hosted on Patreon and to this forum, and so it's always going to have a special place in my heart, loins, or whichever organ memorializes nerdy erotica.
With all of that said, and having played the Alpha, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. I'm no more or less disappointed than I expected that I would be, and perhaps that very expectation of disappointment is the cause, as is so often the case with disappointment. This disappointment takes full account for the incomplete nature of the alpha game, and the handful of bugs and unfinished renders that still persist, and for the issues that 'deem has experienced with Patreon.
While the game may have more content than it did previously in the strictest terms possible, in line length and code and narration, there is less story content and progression in this iteration of the game than there was in the previous, and it seems extremely unlikely that any amount of changes in the transition from Alpha to release is going to remedy that. Perhaps I'm just failing at progressing further in the game, but based on the feedback of other users it seems unlikely.
As far as my issues with the Alpha go...
I'm sorry for the issues that Irredeemable's had, and the timing of them, but I think it should be fairly easy to understand why many people might be disappointed given the amount of time that's passed. I have to imagine that at some point in the timeline a great deal of previous work had to be scrapped, and that there were other challenges with working on the project over the Holidays, etc. All of that is understandable. The measure of discontent players are experiencing should have been pretty predictable though. I honestly can't wrap my head around the people that are hyping the update as though it's spectacular.
I'm disappointed. I think most people will be disappointed. I think that disappointment will be the same with full release as with Alpha. I'm still hopeful for the future of the game and really hope to see it actually get somewhere now that this stage of development is out of the way. I'm still a huge fan of Irredeemable's writing, and hope he wasn't kidding about that bildungsroman. Probably going to transition from frequently checking progress on this game to checking it out every few months at most, though, in hopes of avoiding further disappointment.
Just my honest two cents. Nothing but love for Irredeemable, regardless of the disappointment.