They had a goal to release this game on steam about 1 year ago.
YES, and it wasn't good enough, it wasn't a game. It didn't have the story in place. I couldn't do it in good faith.
So far, there hasn't been 1 good update in an entire year. 1 new pose? Oh that's great let me check out that 1 new pose, oh wait! My game just crashed because for some reason the UI is broken and super laggy, and most of the UI doesn't work (Referring to settings).
This is why releases are so slow, I don't like that people have this experience. Often this happens cause try to release builds with critical functions disabled but it would just cause more problems. I made a post some time ago that this would end and I would just finish the features.
Trying to make stable releases mid development while doing programming, design and art is extremely difficult. And above all I don't want a reputation for releases like this, I'd rather just wait. I work on this FULL TIME, and that's still just not enough.
It's clear they are just abandoning Itch.io to get more income from Patreon. But even subscribers on Patreon barely get anything! I bet even on SubscribeStar they don't get anything as well. Game is just a straight cash grab.
I'm going to tell you guys a secret, I HATE Patreon, the company not my supporters. I don't want to support a company that stalks someone's twitter to tell them to delete art posts they don't like. I've said it on Patreon multiple times that at some point the Patreon WILL close when I find more stable income streams.
Itch is one of those streams, for me itch is more important than SS and Patreon combined. And then you might ask "Well why don't we get fuckin updates!" cause of obligations. To me, itch is a place people expect a working product and I want to deliver that. On SS and patreon people pay to support development, so they are owed development updates. A single individual pays WAY more there than here on itch.
People here WILL get updates, they WILL get a product but I only ask for patience. But on supporter sites, I owe not only constant news but releases as much as reasonable. But even then releases haven't been frequent for a variety of reasons. Cause I know some of those releases will end up in the public, and I try to minimize the damage that kind of thing can cause.
I understand waiting is annoying, and I hope when the next release comes in a few months you will understand what you're really getting.