Yeah,I know the budget does really matter for every independent game developers……
I don't know about the Western game's market.But now in Asia,the visual novel is not as popular as several years before.There are only few great and well-known companyies'game will be a great hit,while most of games will be forgotten and may just get the developing money back……Or the game can produce some meme(we Chinese call it "geng" or "neta" in Japan)in the Internet to become hot……It's a pity but it's true.
Yours games are good in quality. The Carpe diem has 7,154 Chinese comments in the Steam,and almost all of them highly praise it.Even the negative comments are mostly criticizing the Chinese translation.So I think you can be confident about your games and yourself XD.
The sequel Reboot is even greater,but it doesn't gain the attention as the previous work in Chinese.I think there are two reasons.Firstly,it doesn't have the Chinese translation.Though the pre-work's translation is regarded as terrible,it does work.I have to say my English is above the average in my contemporary.However,to understand the text,I have to use the Internet dictionary to read slowly. Then,if I hadn't searched the pre-work in the Internet,I wouldn't be able to know it has the sequel…The players aren't unwilling to play the sequel,maybe they just don't even know.
Though I say that the Asia visual novel's market is declining,it still one of the best game forms for Otaku(maybe the"Geek"in English?).We still enjoy it and regard it as a bizarre and wonderful experience.
Again,thanks for you and your games,good luck!
Best wishes : )