There is a pretty simple explanation if you all are willing to accept it. And if you can't, there probably isn't any way to convince you other than for me to actually release something, which is exactly what I'm trying to do.
Summary:
This shit is hard and it takes years to develop an application like this. If this were easy, there would be more competitors.
To be fair, no one in this thread (unless I missed a post and certainly not mine) disagree with this point or have said otherwise. The issue is this isn't
THE reason development is going slowly and why the project has some risks as well.
The reason? You do not wish to hire on extra help that can build your skills faster and mentor you, split the workloads, or have specialized (physics, rendering, etc.) or greater skill sets than you that could dramatically multiply VAM 2's development progress several fold. This isn't even a "it takes time and money to bring people up to par on an already existing project" issue because the timeline is very clear additional manpower would far outstrip this issue by orders of magnitude.
To be completely fair, as well, I've also spoken prior why I understand your approach even though I'm not a personal fan of it. However, me and others have also pointed out the inherit risks of that approach as well, not even considering the negative aspect of your supporters "wait".
As for the "more competitors" comment this isn't really a proper claim. Porn games, inherently, have a niche development base even in the professional world where Illusion stood as reigning king for well over a decade despite their lacking quality or improvements over the years and finally still folded. However, adult game acceptance is gradually growing. Further, as was pointed out prior this game is in a similar boat to the Star Citizen example provided where it was highly dominant and way ahead at the forefront of the industry for its genre but now simply no longer has the position it once did despite still not even having a proper release date much like this project's extended but at least honest timeline. Further, as mentioned, development tools such as recent AI developments both in the realm of art, programming, and built in capabilities within development tools (ex. environment or city generation like Unreal Engine 5 recently added, etc.) mean we could see projects literally pop up over night far exceeding VAM 2. In fact, we've already seen a few in the past year that have had such potential quite exceeding VAM 2 to be frank but developers suddenly go totally mute or have other issues (notably an oddly frequent case of clear and rather severe mental illness among adult game developers, a topic I wont go into too much here). Others still exist but had rapid development then went into drip mode similar to VAM 2. Then we have a rare case of a proper team like Wildlife which simply dwarfs VAM 2 and other projects in aspect of development, scale, content, and any potential (granted they're also hyper niche interestingly enough thus not resulting in any particular market dominance as of yet). Anyways, the short version is I wouldn't just assume your timeline is safe even with the still immature but gradually growing adult game industry. Still, even despite this fact at least on your end from a financial and work life balance standpoint your approach is still the most ideal state at the expense of the project and its supporters so I can't blame you, either, and don't think you're necessarily in the wrong.
I also think it is fair to mention even as Mesh is clearly learning, yourself, those same AI benefits can potentially help expedite Mesh's own development as such technology evolves (something Mesh and others discuss somewhat regularly on Discord) including programming assistive tools while learning new skills as a developer so we could also see Mesh have a realistic and radical boost to efficiency, skill, and a reduction of timeline down the road. In the end, we're only really talking possibilities, not certainties.
On an unrelated note, perhaps the aspects I can most appreciate about this project is its developer (you) are much more transparent, you speak and listen to others on Discord quite actively including feedback and development even this far into the established project, and clearly despite any viable profit intent of this route there is a clear passion in the project from you where other developers seem battered and faded in this passion. I only mention both sides because I think it is worth discussing.
