Gotcha, thank you for your fulsome answer ^^
Actually, with respect to shamanio, it's also the smarter financial move to wait and I believe they know that. They stand to make more money in the longer run selling the game in increments on Patreon to subscribers while developing, than they do putting the game for sale in early access (incomplete) on larger platforms simultaneously. I agree with them doing it this way as well, as it shows long term vision and evidences a smarter business acumen. You only alienate and anger those who purchase an early access game on Steam (for example). As often (99% of the time) developers will encourage subscribers on Patreon by releasing chapters in advance there, while those who've made a flat purchase on other platforms for an early access game are forced to wait.
Thanks, SR007. My reply also without offence to you personaly:
No there's no smart financial move we just wanna live and make this game. All simple.
DrMad has quit his "regular" job to make this game, he needs to eat and feed his family. Buy cloth for wife and childrens. Pays his bills (you know what electricity bills you get when your PC with 4090 GPU on board are bakes renders / animations all day and all night?).
He works on this game without dayoffs and weekends - every day. And this is rutine for all VN creators, that's why they all are burnout... Because all you have is RUN, and nothing more than RUN. If you stops you dies.
If we talk about me - i have a "regular" job(almoust 10 hours per day and 5 days of week) so i can work on our game only in my free time or weekends (sometimes its eats all of my weekends / vacations and dayoffs) and it's really hard - you know, when you need to do a work on your freetime even if its work on your game - it's still a work. And because our subs numbers are pretty low - for now i work on the game for free...
The main thing of my speech:
Small developers like us (especially when we talk about adult games) doesnt have a sponsors or something... We don't get any regular money flows from other sources than crowdfunding platform. No one pays us for our work on the game, only our loyal subs are make this game real.
Now we have Itch platform and we are try's to sell our game here - soon we will realese a new update here but firstly we need to thanks(by doing early acsess to them) our crowdfunding subs because we live on their subscriptions.
Next steps what we will do:
Rebuild the start of the game (introduction scene's for Jessy, Susan, Betty, Monica, Amy), and fix all translations problems before release our game on big platforms. We wanna fix the big mistakes we did when we start development. Adds a replay gallery. Than we will think about next move.
It can be Steam release by seasons model (this is financialy smart move - you(as dev) will get "early" money from selling parts of the game and a boost to subs that will grow your regular crowdfunding income), but we are not ready.
Just to be clear, there was nothing in my post that shows any resentment for you making as much money as you can making this game. I wish you well and hope you make as much profit as possible. If you need to be strategic to do so, then more power to you. Creativity deserves to be rewarded, and we must all make a living. I myself have purchased this game on itch and I have subbed on your Patreon page in the past as well. Your game is quality and I am happy to support it.