So you admit that you have no idea whether he's being fake or not. When a dev keeps saying an update will release for over 4 months but it didn't. Then you have to think something is seriously wrong or they are lying, maybe both... Either way you can't treat your customers like that, constantly saying an update will be ready many times over the four months is deceitful (intentional or not)
If a dev says the update is coming soon, say end of the month and a subscriber believes him. Then of course they will sign up for that period if they want to see the update. This is not something to blame the subscriber for. This is the devs fault for not sticking to his word! This shows your biast to the developer with blind trust, which he has taken advantage of but you still say its ok. Now supporters know not to trust the dev
Completely misunderstood what i was saying! I said the dev releases each update after the day of the month when the previous one was. So people who are subscribing month by month will pay an extra month from when they first did, to see the new update - not a bug fix update, a brand new one. Dev gets an extra month payment every update by releasing it on a certain day after most supporters subscription runs out. He has done this every update for over a year. Has nothing to do with a bug fix update - maybe use another translation software to understand what people are saying. This is why its so hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't know English well. They can't understand some things and go off on tangents that have nothing to do with the original statement.
I made a general complaint about the game and the dev. It is YOU who argued and replied to me. I was not talking to you or at you. You decided to say these things because you were angry and frustrated that someone would say someting negative about something you like. As you are paying for this monthly and have emotional and monetary investment to defend. You could have said nothing and left it or even not replied to me but said something separately in the thread. You chose to be the one that started this. Yet you blame me?
You call me stubborn and delusional throughout your speech. Im pointing out things which should be common sense and warning signs to you and others. Believe it or not but I'm actually trying to help you. When there are so many issues that have been going on - it is you who looks the stubborn one to not realize. You are putting up more excuses than the dev! There is a saying - "It is easier to fool someone, then to make them believe that they have been fooled". Its up to you to see these things happening and make your own mind up. For now you have chosen to defend the dev for even things you say you're not sure of. Yet you admit that there is problems but you trust him. How long will that trust last when these same things keep happening... ? Devs must love supporters like you! Many people have been in your position and defended devs when they were paying them, being naive over excuses. Once you stop and realize devs have been taking advantage of supporters trust, like lots of us who have been around this genre for many years and have learnt the painful way, which I'm trying to make you not go through. You will eventually see yourself what is actually going on.You are trusting first and sceptical last. Where as I am the opposite, as I've seen this pattern before from many devs.
Hey guys,
This post deserves a proper reply. A lot of valid points have been made here, and I haven’t really explained myself on this forum before, only briefly on Patreon and in private messages. So here’s my side of the story, for anyone who’s interested. I messed up with the last update for
The East Block. No excuses. I just want to explain what happened and what I was thinking throughout the process.
Things started off late. The Halloween special, family matters, and the holidays set production back by over a month. I didn’t get into full swing until early January. At that point, I had the structure for all the scenes laid out and felt confident about aiming for a March release. That seemed reasonable. I worked hard, but each scene kept expanding in scope, more renders, more complexity, and it became clear I’d underestimated the workload.
I pushed the release estimate to April and doubled down. Even then, I realized the update was getting too big, I was already well past my usual 700–800 renders. So I made the call to cut a few scenes and focus on the core ones I felt mattered most.
But when I sent an early build to a few close friends, the feedback was clear: it felt incomplete. So I reversed course, added the cut content back in, and delayed things again to get the quality where it needed to be. By then, the update was nearly double the usual runtime, and the number of renders and animations reflected that. One of the final scenes caused huge rendering headaches, technical issues that wasted a ton of time.
By the third week of April, I had missed another deadline. My patrons were understandably frustrated, and I take full responsibility for that. I should’ve paused billing during that time, another mistake on my part.
When the update was finally done, I shared it with my testers. They loved it… but a couple of scenes were pushing the limits of what Patreon allows. I had someone I trust, who used to work on Patreon’s Trust & Safety team, review it. He flagged a few things that could be risky, so I played it safe and redid about 100 renders and several animations. That took four more days of nonstop work.In the end, the update landed at nearly 1,500 renders and over 80 animations, basically a double update. But that doesn’t excuse how poorly I managed expectations. I didn’t communicate clearly or frequently enough, and that’s on me.
Going forward, I won’t be giving estimated release dates unless I’m very close to done. I know people like to have a rough idea, but the best I can do is share progress updates, completed renders, coding milestones, etc. I’ll start doing that in my next dev log, which should drop in a couple of days.
If anyone felt misled or ripped off, I’ve always been willing to offer refunds and communicated this regularly once the delays started, and I’ve already processed about 20 for people who asked. Patreon has limitations on what I can refund and for how long, but message me and I’ll do what I can to make it right if you would like that. And for what it's worth, I have never purposefully timed any release with what the majority of patrons renewal dates are. They are all over the place and people subscribe and unsubscribe every day so doing that wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.
Lastly, I want to say that I appreciate this forum.
The East Block would never have gained traction without the exposure I got here. I don’t have much time to engage because I’m focused on making the game and Patreon(where people are paying), but I do check in here a couple of times a week and read what’s being said, even if I can’t always reply. I appreciate anything that you guys have to say and I do what I can to accommodate things players want.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Bobby
