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As it happens, I've been in a bad situation for the last year and a half, my Patreon support has more than halved, my debts are piling up, and it's getting harder and harder to pay for housing and medical procedures.
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If there had been devoted work and development, I'm sure he wouldn't have had any money problems.
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Just my two cents:
First, this is no question of missing devotion!
From what we could get from PixelsLab, he was devoted from the beginning, but bad english in the first chapters and the fact the story needed some time to get into held people back - but for he paid for translations (and was kind of scammed), fewer people supporting him meant that updates needed longer to be translated - a bad downwards spiral.
Besides that point, PixelsLab didn't hide from the very beginning that he had health and money issues.
Still, he kept coming through. Just the support never really picked up - like it does not for many good/promising VNs.
But as a developer, you can't keep going unaffected by that indefinitely.
Then at some point, because PixelsLab had problems (don't remember the specific reason), instead of just announcing the situation, he actively asked people over several posts to stop supporting him - and guess what - they did.
That falls pretty much together with a noticeable decline in Patreon support and later never really picked up again - also because of what I mentioned before.
Then later PixelsLab announced there were problems with getting money out of Patreon because of him being from Russia. In that vein, he also asked people to either stop their support or use other means like his SubscribeStar account. But that one kept us waiting to be fully set up. So not only were people removing their Patreon support, but they also weren't able to shift it somewhere else instead in case they wanted.
This is also an important point - not everyone has those other accounts or wants to use them - just like other people won't touch Patreon for various reasons.
So while it is understandable, that a situation where no money comes in is not sustainable for a longer time period - just lamenting over it is a bit too easy here - the current situation was also in part set up by PixelsLab himself by actively making people withdraw their support.
For now, I'm keeping my support up - and PixelsLab - If you don't categorically intend to stop working on this VN altogether after finding a job to give you some more stability - don't make the same mistake again.
Asking people to not support you or closing possibilities for them to do so will result in less support without question.
Just state the situation and don't overshare by making such decisions for your supporters unless that outcome is what you are aiming for.
There are enough examples of developers that have a quite slow update schedule and still getting some support from people who like their work though. Sometimes even stating it's just a relaxing hobby and if they get 50$ a month it's a bonus/sign of appreciation for them, but not what keeps them going.
So if it doesn't cost you to keep your SubscribeStar/Patreon account open and your update schedule would just be reduced to once half a year for example - just ignore people asking for a quick sex scene or lamenting about you not pumping image numbers out like a 10 person team, and let people decide on their own what support your slowed schedule is worth to them.
It will decline, but getting 200$ a month instead of 700$ and still working on the VN as you are capable and willing to besides a day job might still be better than just abandoning what you invested all that work, money, and health into over the last years.
If it has become just stress for you though and only gives you bad memories - then as much as it would pain me to not get to the end of the story - close everything but do it in a way that no one is uncertain if there was a chance left you came back - don't do it in stages, where you first tell us you can't work on it as much, actively ask us to reduce our support (and offensively stating you understand us reducing our support, ultimately is that as well) and then close everything up later because of your declined support ...
After all that: Regardless of what you decide
PixelsLab, thanks for your work and dedication to see this through until now.
While it was a rocky start for me as well - I really enjoyed the story so far.
I wish you all the best going forward!
