12 hour shifts don't sound sustainable mate. As much as i'd like the game finished ASAP, burnout makes that less likely. I hope that at least with the Steam release the game's providing you with an income of sorts?
E: just seen it's on in November on steam
That is the hope, as long as I can get one big income boost from Steam. I'll reinvest it all back into the project, hiring people to help me even. That's the whole plan.
Cause I've sank a small fortune on Elleria by now, especially on soundtracks. Assets aside. Not to mention RTX4090 drains shit ton of electricity for constant day and night rendering. Bills to deal with.
And what I get from Itch.io and Ko-Fi tips, well, honestly, I just buy fucking energy drinks to chug down. Staying awake 7 days for more than 12 hours a day isn't easy.
I know, it really boils down to me getting sick physically more than mentally. But I also don't wanna be Dr.PinkCake, no matter the quality of product, to release updates every fucking year of Christ, and keep people waiting, at least those who actually like the game.
Not to mention I have other projects I wanna work on, and Elleria is meant to be a trilogy. So I gotta keep up the pressure and push stuff out one after another.
I'd prefer to leave these games finished by the time I'm dead, contrary to some devs out there it seems.