itch.io

Yes plz

The announcement channel hasn't had any relevant information to the progression of the game in months. On itch, he says to look on discord for more information, but the information is apparently in the patreon channel even though itch is mostly non patreons.

Tbf (to loosely quote Kael), he never asked for the notoriety his VN got and he basically says if you don't like the way he runs things you can just unsubscribe from the Patreon and he'll be none the wiser. So ig that's your answer. It's just the way he runs  things

I don't think anyone knows. Kael posted that he doesn't want to work on the VN in the "current climate", so that implies a type of hiatus. But in the post before that he said the game wasn't on hiatus. But then before that he changed the release date to TBA and hasn't mentioned anything about a release date, so idk.

This is what I was talking about with communication though. Neither I, or anyone else, knows what's going on. 

I'm an engineer and work in project groups with deadlines all the time. We're given an idea to make happen and when we need more time, we let our coordinators know well in advance so they can make necessary adjustments. This is how I've experienced this situation but I understand art doesn't run the same way. I can't really say I understand the missing deadlines thing and just accepting that it happened or the having to be in the right mood to work, but I do empathize and acknowledge that our situations aren't the same. 

That's why I'm saying I'm willing to compromise. He can take his time as long as I just get some type of status update.

Alright well the WolfPuppet guy in the comments is being hella weird about this and saying "we" to represent all the people who have criticisms to give, but I'm pretty sure he's way off the mark.

I definitely am not entirely satisfied with this Patreon I have subscribed to, but it's literally just the transparency issue. I definitely don't feel like Kael owes me anything and I am not pissed he keeps delaying the VN. I understand that he isn't a machine and setbacks happen. So the guy representing all of us who are dissatisfied is in no way doing it accurately. 

I just literally want to be kept in the loop. I apologize Kael if I made you uncomfortable or stressed, but I do stand behind what I said about the transparency issue. You may not see it that way, but there are quite a few of us who see going silent for weeks at a time after missing a deadline you yourself set as poor communication. It honestly isn't that big of a deal and it's just honest criticism. You have a lot of people in your Discord and even in the itch comments just spewing mindless positivity and how they'll wait until the ends of the earth without any updates until you feel ready and that's fine. However I also feel like the people who support you and are not okay with little communication in a month should also be able to speak their mind in a reasonable fashion. I just want to be updated on what's happening with this project. It doesn't have to be a build or patreon rewards or whatever. Just let us know where you stand throughout the month more than once or twice so we can understand what's happening with the project we chose to support.

Again idk what's up with this guy saying all this nonsense like how we bought your product and now you work for us or whatever. I don't think most of the people who have criticisms feel that way. Just keep us in the loop plz.

The first like sentence or two is all I've been saying.

1: The last update for YOU (a non-patreon) came out ~2 months + 1 week ago. Patreon's get the build dropped 2 weeks earlier. So for me it was pretty much 3 months not 2.

2: The Regara sprite is for the second tier subscription and up ($5+). I went down to the basic patreon subscription after the first time it got delayed during my subscription like back in Jan-Feb (since in my mind I'm if it's gonna be delayed anyways, I don't mind just waiting like everyone else. I did still want to support Kael however).

3: Even if I wasn't a patreon (again I am), that mentality is super shitty and toxic. It essentially promotes the idea that the only people Kael should care about are the ones that give him money. Everyone else's opinions dont matter. I don't even have to assume, I know that's not what Kael thinks.

You can call me whatever you want and downvote me to hell and back, i dont really care. If you really care about his community and VN you should honestly hold him more accountable and be real with him instead of making excuses for him and downvoting anyone how has a negative thing to say. The ones he'll actually listen to are the people like you, but instead of helping him change you're too busy kissing his ass.

 I really like his VN and through all of Kael's faults I still am going to choose to support him, but his system has got be changed. I am fine waiting. Others may not, but I like his story, characters, and the world he built. I loathe the lack of communication he has. For some reason you all think this problem doesn't exist and that's why he doesn't change it. I just want him to be upfront and clear about the difficulties and delays he's facing AS they happen not when they pile up.

That's it.

I mentioned this earlier, but it's happening again and is equally as frustrating still that within a month he's doing it again

The lack of transparency is really frustrating. Right when I said that 2 weeks ago Kael made a post about how he is being transparent and not ghosting, but then immediately goes radio silent again for 2 more weeks. The build is apparently in the final stages, but again that was 2 weeks ago and there has been no news sense. 

The other thing that is extremely frustrating is that he said that itch is essentially just a delivery platform for the free version and if I wanted more information to go through Discord, Patreon, Twitter, etc. I sent a message through Twitter/Patreon asking for another update like the General Update a couple days ago (you know for transparency) and got no reply. I made a discord and asked about any more information, but was essentially ignored and then a few of my messages in the chat were also deleted. 

We're at the point now where it's basically been 3 months since any build has been released. I wouldn't even mind if it took 3 months if it meant I was supporting something I CAN SEE. Also if I wasn't so in the dark about everything. I support Drakes on Patreon and he basically straight up just says that he's in school and won't be able to do updates for 3 or so months at a time. But at least he stays active with his community so I know what's happening and I'm more than happy to support that. With this I don't even know what I'm paying for, and when I ask I just get told to stop asking and my messages deleted.

I empathize with your situation being away from Elath and living alone for a couple months, but like please be upfront and transparent. Moreso then whatever you think you're doing at the moment. As someone supporting your work I shouldn't have to question what's happening with you. You say you're most active on Patreon/Discord, but they also have no idea what's happening because you haven't kept those channels in the loop either. Please just give regular updates (even if it's just a paragraph about the current build) and stop going weeks after a deadline has already been missed without saying literally anything.

Has there been any update since the general one? Like an estimation or anything?

I guess not 

Solely because no one else seems to want to say it, I'm gonna do it.

I really enjoy the FBtW story and think Kael does a really good job on each update, but his time management is awful and the fact that he delays every update is extremely frustrating. I understand he does all the coding, art, etc by himself, but with that same train of thought why does he pretend this will take the same amount of time as a developer with a team. If you are consistently having to delay a release it looks extremely unprofessional/irresponsible and even moreso when there's a different reason each time (move to australia, vaccine, problems coding, soulsearching?, etc). If you need 2 months per update just make it 2 months or hire people to do the coding/work you can't be bothered to do that makes you have to push the update back so often.

The most frustrating part, however, is when the patrons/fans constantly enable this behavior, by saying things like "I'm just gonna wait until whenever it comes out and be happily surprised!" or "don't ask if it's being delayed, it'll come when it comes (this moreso, especially when it's delayed every month consistently)". It's really easy to tell who hasn't had any real responsibility before when you see comments like that. If I kept missing deadlines at my job (ESPECIALLY ones I set myself) I would be fired. This isn't to say Kael needs something like that, but it's moreso the idea that he needs to treat this like the job he makes it out to be. And more importantly the community needs to start holding him more to his word  so he improves and stops backsliding into pushing back updates.

I understand I'm not paying much of anything per month to be a patron and shit happens that can mess up your daily schedule, but I think something has to change. Every update since I became a patron in early 2021 has been delayed. There isn't even a message about it being delayed until the day it's supposed to release, which leads me to believe it's just poor planning on Kael's part. We are always asked to rate it 5-star and buy the merchandise, but you can't even release a regular update (or at least put information out there before the release date about a delay).

To Kael: If you need more my time to complete the updates to the level of quality you want to per month, then make the update schedule longer. Either that or hire people to lighten the load. 

To the patrons/community: People don't better themselves by burying their head in the sand when a problem arises. Kael clearly has trouble managing his time to release these updates on schedule and if you want him to better himself offer solutions, not excuses. You can be supportive and critical at the same time.

Like I said at the beginning, I do like this VN, but it's getting more and more frustrating when the delays are this frequent and instead of trying to fix it the community is just playing the part of Kael's PR manager.