How do you want to be viewed?
Better than your competitors, the same, or worse...
One of the biggest miscommunications that come between an aspiring game dev and their audience is the fact that the game is still in an early stage of development and the aspiring game dev never bothers to mention, upfront on the top of the page (or anywhere for that matter), the following message: "The game is still in early development, (alpha, beta, etcetera) and the only route or level available is..."
If you had done THAT half of the complaints on your page would not exist and the other half WOULD NOT come from players expecting to see a finished game or a game that only needs a little polish.
The fact that you finally bothered to mention "The game is still in early development," in the comments after someone complained about the quality of your game, sounds like a copout rather than a reply from someone who is owning up to the lack of X in their product.
If I have to read all of your dev reports until (the present) before DL'ing your game, just so I know what to expect (regarding the quality of your game) I am gunna move on and DL someone else's experiment rather than DL'ing yours.
"Currently under development..." is a very, very vague annoucement and given the rest of that paragraph, "as soon as we reach our patron goals we will be able to release an official road map and possibly start working full time on the project, which will guarantee updates very often and overall a faster development", it sounds like a sales pitch (and a pathetic excuse) for an unfinished game.
If you truly want people to buy your games...
If you truly want people to view you as a successful and dependable game dev (and not another amateur wannabe hack or worse a crowd-funding scammer)...
First, finish the game AND THEN put a price tag on it.
It's bad enough that AAA companies think we should fund their beta-testing but it's even worse to say, "we can't finish our half-baked game without your money".
Second, stop using software meant for the character creation from one of Illusion's games to make art that is supposed to be owned by you.
Before you make anymore excuses or copouts, ask yourself...
How do you want to be viewed?
Better than your competitors, the same, or worse...
If you want to make money as a game dev then you had better learn to run your ship better than (at least the majority of) the wannabe amateur hacks that overfill itch.io and other sites like itch.io.
Either you act like as a professional and increase the odds of being successful.
Or you act like every other amateur on this site and increase the odds of being another forgotten failure.
Learn to program and learn to do your own art or learn to accept that you will never be a successful game dev.
Every professional in the world, knows starting a business takes a huge personal investment and an even bigger sense of commitment.
I spent 8 years learning to program. 7 of those years were spent learning how to do all of the systems of software design for the type of applications I dreamed of making and some I won't ever need (basic thru advanced).
Then, I considerd architecture and engine design. Finally, after yet another 2 years (studying architecture and engine design) I wrote my first engine.
That is what it takes...that level of commitment.
Even then many other variables come into play.
Before I decided to re-learn programming (because I failed to do so in college during my 20's), I spent 38 years growing up and maturing as a person...working for other people.
I earned my way to the third highest in two seperate companies. I learned how to do business plans, make brochures, speak to investors, speak to distributors & wholesellers, how to be a leader, how to manage groups of people, how to produce products and sell them. All of these are essential business skills that NO ONE is born with.
And I learned how to learn from my mistakes... I worked at Mcd's when I was 20 and again at 32. Plus several retail outlets between the rise of my successes and fall of my misrtakes.
And after all of that time, effort and learning, I still suffered 3 failed startups, before I made it.
And no, I don't sell porn games.
I make and sell legitmate software.
I don't have volunteers. I have employees. I pay them a good wage.
Like most professionals, I didn't do crowdfunding. I make my products and then I sell them.
I wasn't born rich. My mother never made than $14 an hour and my father died in a trailer park the same year I began putting myself back to school. He died before he got to see me finally have my own little piece of the world. I never got to ask if he was proud of me.
Meanwhile...
You turned 18 or 16 and you believe 'I know everything about life', meanwhile you take huge short cuts, make excuses and whin about being poor and whin when your thrree-month, part-time endeavor gets less than 3 stars.
Right now, you're on the same path as 90% of the other wannabes on this site. but it's never to late to change and learn to do things the right way rather than the quick and easy way.
No excuses. No copouts. No wordplay or misdirection. No whinning.
Either learn to rise above your competition or be forgotten.
Either you act like as a professional and increase the odds of being successful.
Or you act like every other amateur on this site and increase the odds of being another forgotten failure.
You think I am being hard on you?
you think I am being unfair?
Just wait until you see your dream (your biggest chance in life) shatter right in front of you and see your investors, that one employee (you had the money to pay) and all of your volunteers leave you.
Later that night, you lie in bed crying in your lover's arms as you realize 'it's over'......and what do you have to show for it? Unpaid bills and a giant hole in your self-esteem.
After two years running a startup...14-hour days, 7 days a week, working until dawn and getting 6 hours sleep.......you have to go get a job and all of the money has to go back to the investor(s).
The next day, when you feel nothing could be more bleak than your life at that moment........you walk back into your office and look upon your desk and all of the business licenses, design documents, diagrams, finished systems and engines, protoypes, spread sheets...(all of your pride) and you have to figure out where to put all of it (if not into the trash can).
You don't know what hard is.
You don't know the price of sacrifice...
You don't know the cost of having a dream....
not yet...
but.....
win or lose....
if you get close enough to see the fruit of your labor turn into enough dollar signs that you can finally hire people.......you will finally understand the cost of having a dream IS the price of sacrifice.