Interesting to see what people think the problem is from an outside perspective.
Well the good news from my pov is that while you guys are right that the game is a freaking bear because of all the branching and choices, we haven't really allowed that to slow down development. It really just makes me and Cheeky work harder with the writing/story development and keeping everything straight. This puts us in something of a league of our own with impactful choices/player interactivity though, which is what we want, but we have both have agreed we probably will cut back on the branching in our next game whenever that happens. As Cheeky has been saying the writing/story is generally on task but we can't deny there were definitely growing pains during EP17 with the new crew, all of us learning new things, updating our models (which is still ongoing), and world events both good and bad.
As for editing Cheeky handles the majority of that and it definitely can bog him down, but ironically the Lily scene Cheeky did entirely himself.
So it came out pretty much exactly how he wanted I figure. About the only director edits he wishes for Ep17 I can think of was the girl choice while waiting for Elaine, as it caused more confusion than he intended. lol We also could have went a bit lighter on the image count here and there, but that was my own personal growing pain.
EP18 isn't coming along as fast as we'd like (nothing comparable to EP17 so don't panic too much) but as usually if we don't make the progress we set for ourselves, our patreons get to skip a month of payment even though work does carry on.
Now with that dose of meh, there is some great news. There is a little Cheeky Jr. now!
No doubt the apple of his daddy's eye and the bane of his nose when it comes time for changing.