In regards to reading other comments and your previous update posts, I feel that I need to speak out as a customer who has been awaiting a product. I am a bit concerned that Parival does not seem to take their business seriously or comprehend that 1st DEGREE is a product. I understand that English visual novels are fairly new in game development and as upcoming publishers/companies. I see new game studios popping up on twitter announcing their newest product. However, even as an indie game studio you are still a business and you are producing a product to sell to customers.
I'm noticing a lack of professionalism when it comes to updates, especially this update in particular. Telling your customers that you're sensitive to reading comments regarding your product is unprofessional. Parival's attitude and how you guys have handled your business lack professionalism. You aren't treating your game studio as if it's a business. If you were aware of the fact that you have a busy personal life, college commitments, and a different job; then why start a gaming company? That's not organizing your priorities, you and your team are woefully unprepared to handle a business. If there's been a recurring issue with other team members not balancing their responsibilities and are unable to commit to this job then why keep them? Why not terminate their contract and hire someone more reliable? I have no idea if you have contracted freelancers to work with you or if your team consists of personal friends. I can guarantee, that if you worked on any other game developers such as Naughty Dog, Bethesda, etc. etc. you won't be able to keep your job/position if you have to pause a project every so often.
I want you to know that as a customer, your excuses for pausing 1st DEGREE's game development and continuously delaying the game's release date; tells me that Parival as a whole are unprepared and weren't ready to handle managing a game studio. Again, other gaming companies try their hardest never to announce a game's delay. They work on their product with little announcements on progress and schedule a release date that's set 2-5 years ahead to give them the time-frame to work and polish their product for release. If they do need to announce a delay, it is to wrap production up and polish out any bugs or to tweak game-play. Even so, their announcements are short and sweet, and above all: professional.
Here's an example of SQUARE ENIX's delay announcement on FFVIIR:
We are making this tough decision in order to give ourselves a few extra weeks to apply final polish to the game and to deliver you with best possible experience. I, on behalf of the whole team, want to apologize to everyone, as I know this means waiting for the game just a little bit longer. Thank you for your patience and continued support.
In regards to previous comments from customers who were suspicious of Parival's continuous delays, they have a reason to be upset and suspicious. As I stated earlier, game companies try to prevent any issues with their game development as it can ruin their business and evoke a negative reaction from fans who supports that game company.
Parival should have handled their delays more proficiently and kept it to one delay with an announcement that the product needs x amount of time to wrap production up. I understand that Parival is new and that 1st DEGREE is your first product. I am reaching out to you and Parival in hopes that you can understand why there are upset customers and understand that the way Parival is presenting themselves online to their customers, have made me view this game studio in this way.
You are a business that is taking funds from customers to produce this product. You are planning to sell this product. If this was just a hobby and the game would have been FREE then no one will care as much if the game gets delayed or is never released, because there's no funding involved.
I enjoyed playing the demo and the updated demo tremendously, but as I've mentioned before, so far this game studio has been severely unprepared and irresponsible. However, I believe that this is a learning curve and that perhaps in the future if Parival wishes to produce a new product, then you will understand the ropes and learn from past mistakes.
I am looking forward to 1st DEGREE and see how the story unfolds, and I wish Parival the best of luck.