Since 4 month, his last release.
Many shady devs make games, release some updates and when the money come they push back the next release with excuses, preview of the next release, etc.. until they disappears and people have pledge for 4, 5 or 6 month before the dev vanish completely.
I really hope this is not the case here, I kinda like this game and I don't mind to pledge (again) for something I like.
Yeah I understand all that. However, you have to take these things on a case by case basis. For example, just look at berny's comment. He bailed on a dev he was supporting after 1 month of no communication. Now that dev is back at work & very active but he is still withholding support because he feels that lack of communication was "unforgivable". Well what if so many of that dev's other patrons took the same attitude & now the amount of funding is no longer adequate to cover the costs of making the game, resulting in a delayed or sub par remainder to the game, or killing it off completely? Sure you could argue that the dev should have communicated better, just like with Marvel. The end result is still a compromised or unfinished game. I personally feel that in such a case, the impatient patrons whom bailed out share some of the responsibility for the end result, as their impatience had a direct impact on the end result.
On that same token, keep this in mind. For most devs out there, they have their own lives. Full time jobs, some balancing jobs & school, some balancing work, family, etc... & maybe they only have a few hours a week to dedicate to a side project like this. Many of them also may not have the financial means to make the games on their own & rely on the patreon funds to cover the cost of making them, so if their patreon dips too low, the funds just aren't there to make progress. Sometimes they have a lot going on in their life that needs immediate attention & putting out updates on Patreon isn't as urgent as attending to those RL demands, especially since an update like "issues A, B & C are going on in my life right now & I have to deal with these before I can make time for the game. I do still intend to finish it, but I don't know when that will be" will be just as likely, if not more likely to cause people to say "AAAHHHH PANIC! THE GAME IS ABANDONED! PULL YOUR SUPPORT! THE GAME ISN'T HAPPENING NOW!" Plus if the events going on in their life are particularly stressful or dealing with some sort of crisis, things like a small game they are making will often be the last thing on their minds.
As for devs that just slap together a shitty alpha build to milk Patrons for money & string them along as long as they can before vanishing, yeah I know that happens a lot. What also happens a lot is devs with very limited time & financial resources will start a game, get some patrons, won't work fast enough to appease their patrons whom bail on them & leave them in a position with loads of people complaining that they aren't working fast enough, others criticizing the game, (which ALL devs here get in heaps), & wondering why they should continue to spend their limited free time & own pocket money continuing to work on the game at all, which often results in them saying "fuck it", pulling the plug & spending their time & money on things they enjoy more. I'd even be willing to bet that some, (though not all), of the ones that are viewed as "milking patreon to scam their patrons" were those same devs that got sick of all the demands & criticism & just didn't want to deal with it anymore.
As for no updates in 5 months, Shit, Millions of people have been waiting for Half Life 3 for over 10 years. I've been waiting for Borderlands 3 since 2014 & Freebird games hasn't released a new game since Finding Paradise back in December of last year. & these are BIG game studios who's full time job is to make games with actual big studio budgets & resources & teams of specialists with college degrees in making this shit, not individual laypeople whom work on these games in what free time they can borrow after work, family & other obligations have consumed the rest & operating on a budget of whatever they can afford on their own personal PC & what they can manage from their own finances & whatever they can get on Patreon. So setting the demands so much higher for these people than bigger studios whom exist only to make games is frankly idiotic.
My point is, These people aren't Valve or Gearbox or any other big studio who make a living creating games. You're not dealing with big businesses. These are hobbyists whom try to fit in bits & pieces of progress from a mix of their own funds & Patreon, (sometimes the more successful ones can fund it just with Patreon), & doing it when they can get the free time to do it. & sometimes things happen in life that causes hobbies like this to be delayed or put on hold, (such as oh I dunno... a major surgery). It happens to everyone whom lives on their own & has to support themselves. We, as the consuming base should be aware & considerate of that. The sad reality though is 99% of you people aren't. You just want your games & you want them yesterday & dammit, if the shitty dev doesn't deliver to your expectations they are just the biggest pieces of shit ever. That is the problem. There is such an attitude of entitlement from the user base that I'm not surprised more devs don't say "fuck you all, I'm out", ESPECIALLY considering the fact that the vast majority of them aren't even paying patrons & download the game here for free. As for many of the ones that do pay, They have an attitude of "Hey, I gave you a few shekels, now drop everything & make my game now! What? you have to maintain your job to support your family? Your wife was in a car accident & is in the hospital? I don't care. I paid $5 to your Patreon so I own you until I get my damn game". It's bullshit. I myself run my own business & often will be working on a big project like finishing board repair on a stack of macbooks that I need to get back to a reseller with a deadline & will have customers coming to me with a laptop with something like a bad hard drive or viruses from sketchy porn websites. When I tell them it will be a few days before I can fix it, they get irate & demand that I drop everything & immediately fix their computer because "they are a paying customer", even after I explain to them that I'm swamped with work that I have to finish for a much higher paying customer on a deadline. If they keep being demanding, I just give them their money back & tell them to fuck off & find someone else to fix their shit. I don't put up with that kind of bullshit. Just because you throw a few shekels at me that doesn't make me your bitch. The little bit of income that one customer provides doesn't justify putting a higher paying customer whom was there first on the back burner, so if they get that kind of attitude they can fuck right off. The problem with those customers is the same as the problem between devs & the customer base here. The consumers are way to impatient & entitled. They want their game & they want it NOW! & they don't give a shit about the fact that the dev is most likely an individual person doing this in their free time with their own shit going on in their life. They just think "GIMME IT! IT'S MINE!"
Now having said all that, yes I know there are a lot of sketchy & scammy devs & yes I know Marvel & other dev's should have communicated better. I don't dispute that. That again is why I said YOU HAVE TO TAKE THESE ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS! & in this case, I think that it's less of the dev being in the wrong & more of a case of the consumer base yelling "GIMME IT! IT'S MINE!"
