More frequent shorter updates or less frequent longer updates?

Hi everyone!

I am sure that many of you have noticed that updates have been less frequent lately. I used to aim to release an update for each tier every month (biweekly updates), but as the project has grown and become more complex, it seems to take about a month, give or take, to produce a full update which takes into account the potential sprites, story paths and other variables involved.

I adopted a schedule of "release when it is ready" because it allows me to produce more complete and satisfying updates, but I realise that this does not fit well with the monthly payment schedule and people like to know precisely when to expect updates.

For that reason, I am considering smaller updates post 0.62.0 which release monthly for each tier, focusing on making a playable release rather than a complete "episode" of the story (I am going to use the word "episode" to describe the more complete story segment from here on out).

Alternatively, I could lean into monthly releases, but it would mean that subscribers of the Snack Tier would have to pay monthly to only get a bimonthly early-access update.

Either way, I want to set specific release dates starting from May, but I am unsure about the correct course on frequency. I am interested to know what you all think and what kind of update schedule would suit you the most, so please take a look at the pros and cons and let me know in the poll. Also feel free to comment if you have an idea, or think I have failed to consider something important.

More Frequent Short Updates

Pros:

• Meal Tier subscribers get two updates every month (Snack & Meal)

• Snack Tier subscribers get one update every month

• More frequent polls and potentially more influence for subscribers on the direction of updates

Cons:

• Some story updates may be very short if lots of art is required

• There will be more abrupt "to be continued" moments when choosing particular paths

• More time spent polishing and bug fixing to make frequent updates shippable could lead to lesser productivity long-term

Less Frequent Long Updates

Pros:

• Each update will be a more complete episode.

• Although each episode will focus on a particular story path, branches within the episode will typically be covered.

• Less time testing, bug fixing and polishing between updates means that I can focus on building more of the game before doing a polishing sweep. It also means that I spend slightly less time posting and more time working.

Cons:

• Snack Tier subscribers will only get an early access update once every two months, which is not ideal considering the monthly payment plan.

• Less frequent minor bug fixes - I tend to fix minor bugs soon after seeing a report, but I only release dedicated bugfix updates when there are major issues like crashes. With biweekly updates, the minor fixes will become available sooner.