I get the skepticism. Right now, the sandbox mode is way ahead of the story mode, which is where the meat of the RPG experience is supposed to be. It's easy to look at this and think maybe the devs aren't delivering what they promised. In this digital age, where we know internet people by their nicknames and profile pics, it's almost second nature to jump to conclusions based on what we see on the surface. And from your post, it feels like maybe there's a bit of that. Have you dived a bit deeper? Like, checking out Steve's YouTube channel, hanging out on the official Discord to chat with both devs and the community, or catching Steve's streams on Picarto? Or even visiting the company behind the project at their offices? You might be surprised to find it's not just an empty building space and radio silence.
So before we toss around serious accusations, it’s probably best to gather a fuller picture. Again, it’s easy to say "it's been X years, where’s Y?", but remember, Wild Life is funded through platforms like Patreon and recently SubscribeStar. These are for backing ongoing projects, not buying finished games. Even the word "Creating" before the game's name on these platforms is a big hint that it's a work in progress. Consider where this project started as well, Steve kicked it off with his 3D animation skillset and slowly grew it from animations to an actual game over time until later down the road it had a solid demo along with the sandbox editor, but then they basically had to reboot the whole thing after switching to a new engine. So, yeah, can we put down the pitchforks now?
About the gameplay, sure, the sandbox editor, which lets you create your own scenes and interactions, might not be everyone's cup of tea when it comes to traditional gaming. But it's still a form of interactive entertainment that a lot of supporters really enjoy. It's a different way to play, but that doesn’t make it any less valid or fun. It can be a quick and dirty 5 minute animation viewer (what's wrong with that?), or you can spend 69 minutes putting together some props and characters for a stepmother porn scene. It will entertain you either way.