Saying sort of the same but turning it more positive and taking the community along for the ride, I would go with something like this:
We want to make Ancient Cities the best game we can. That is why weāve pushed back release and are now releasing in 2019. When? I will be honest, a lot of work still needs to be done. However we will give you updates along the way. We are in this together! #citybuilder#indiedev
Also āInvestorā here and I rather have the team coding, balancing and working on the game in the time they have to take to consider whatās to be announced, how it would be announced and which communities and channels in wich order, at wich times regarding prime times of the target groups.
A Update Post, especially a good, interesting one with eye-catching screenshots without telling to much or less, is way more effort in the background as we may think.
Take the time and consideration for the game, Iām totally fine with a Quarter and a Year, now and then for a release date.
Perhaps it would help to make āDevelopment Diariesā like Paradox Interactive when they make their games and DLC such as Hearts of Iron IV, Crusader Kings II, etc. Lets people know details about how the game is being developed and solicits feedback.
the problem here is the amount of people who are working on the project, as said by the developers if they spend more time on social media then game development will slow down.
So we have to be patient and hope push hard and get a releasing beta date in mid 2019 and hope that will be error-free.
Does it really matter how many are working on the game? They knew that in the beginning. It only took me a couple of minutes to collect my thoughts and reply to your post. Not much different for the developers to do the same. Please stop giving them excuses. Best Regards.
Donāt usually write much in this forum, but I just want to say that I agree. I have full faith in the team developing AC. When they have something finished to show us, they will show us. I know that every second spent taking pictures, writing updates, making movies and trailers is time NOT spent developing the game.
(My statement does not directly address your point)
I always took the forums as being a place to help hash out the details of the game and their Twitter account as being their primary source of news. They post development updates all the time on Twitter.
And so it currently is, as the devs rarely show up. But they where fully intending dev-blogs in multi forms; itās what the VIP part of the forums were for. Ultimately itās a let down in communication. I am no fan of twitter; in this case it is another excuse to be curt and fast.
I have by no means lost faith and am sure the devs are doing fine.