Let's talk about the wait for CH7. But please remember to keep things friendly and constructive, although I welcome venting and criticism. I will be venting myself (see below).
There's a lot of, for lack of a better word, "impatience" surrounding the game... and it's completely understandable and (in most cases) justified. It's also a good thing, because it means you guys love Radiant. People generally aren't so... passionate about something unless they're deeply emotionally invested in it.
As it so happens, I love making it – I love seeing players reactions and feedback... and because of that... I hate making you guys wait. But the reality is, and it's a sad reality: a project like this takes time. You can't snap your fingers and deliver ~7000 coded lines and 130-200 pages of story, complete with renders, animations, branching, and hundreds of variables/possibilities overnight.
I have been very clear from the start: I will always prioritize delivering the best and highest quality experience to players over rushing things out and fixating on update timing. I've been playing adult visual novels for 7 years, and I can say with absolute certainty that the vast, overwhelming majority of them that I've tried do exactly that: they rush things out, producing story and dialogue as fast as they can type... and "choices" that aren't actually even choices.
Those of us who do not (maybe 10% of AVN developers)... nearly every single one of us takes a while to create what we create. There are some who manage it in very little time, while still delivering very high quality: those people are either insanely gifted, or they have a full team behind their projects. I do not. I am one person who is writing, directing, coding; doing everything except the artwork for this game. Now... does that mean every chapter is going to take a year? No. They will not.
This chapter was difficult, because it's the first time I deviated significantly from the typical formula... that formula being: 50% triplets, 10-30% Brooke, 10-20% everyone else. This chapter was about 65% Brooke, and for that reason I needed it to be on par with previous chapters story-wise. This is hard to do, because a lot of the magic of Radiant comes from the triplets... and without their "support", it can be quite hard to make things hit as hard. When I was all but finished with Chapter 7, I started testing it... and it didn't hit as hard. I was at an impasse: release it, or do a rewrite. 70 pages of rewritten story, code, more renders/animations and a few months later... and here we are with Ch7 in your hands.
There's a lot of "outside noise," specifically on forums where I do not participate in discussions, and that's because nearly every single time someone has tried to bring that to me directly, it's immediately shut down with facts and logic.
Here's a fact: I work insanely hard nearly every single day on this project, pouring my soul into it. Here's a fact: I make almost twice as much money when I release something than I do when I hold back/delay something. Here's a fact: every chapter of Radiant so far has been slightly larger than the previous, barring Ch4 which was a standout... despite narratives that "updates are getting smaller and taking longer." Here's a fact: I've created 11 major/large game updates in the mere 6 years since I started game development. That's including teaching myself how to code, teaching myself 3D artistry, teaching myself how to properly transform a story into a "game" format, and teaching myself general game design. Here's a fact: I have never once asked anyone to donate to my projects. In fact I have actively encouraged everyone to pledge no more than the exact dollar amount they believe we deserve, and not a penny more. I have reiterated this dozens of times, even encouraging people to unsubscribe until we release an update, numerous times.
Here's a fact: I am very bad at communication and estimating my remaining workload, as well as giving approximate release times... but I'm genuinely striving hard to improve in this department: I've been trying to get better for a while. It's never once been my intention to mislead anyone... and believe me, I feel like an idiot when I get something wrong. Anytime I've told you: "such and such will be ready in x-time," it's because I believed it would be.
Anyways, I love you guys and I wouldn't be here doing this if not for your support. And I don't just mean monetary support: knowing there's people who love playing my games means the world to me. I am just a normal guy of average-at-best talent creating something I'm very passionate about, and for that reason... I'm more than happy to continue wading through the aforementioned "noise" if it means delivering something I'm proud of.
To those of you who support this project: YOU are the reason it's possible, and without you, I'd be off working a full-time job. Don't ever let someone make you feel bad, or like an idiot, for supporting something you enjoy. I used to be quite poor, and I used to coughYARRcough games all the time, and it was merely because I couldn't afford it. The moment I was able to, I financially supported everyone I could because I knew how much work and passion was going into these projects. Even if they were scuffed, and even if they kind of sucked. So yeah, thank you. YOU are the ones who keep these projects going, and I truly appreciate you all.