I was part of a VN Project that was worked on by a group of about two dozen or so people.
We tried to recruit a popular artist to do some sprite and background work, and done a bunch of it ourselves, we outlined the different plots of six different characters, and even had to scrap and replace one due to ideological differences in how project management should proceed.
We took one scene from each of the six characters, and packaged them together to create an alpha demo that would increase interest in the product.
We had no support and no money, and also collectively decided not to ask for money for the project because we didn't want to deal with copyright issues or deciding who should get what profits or payments.
All of the music we used had to be either created or royalty free.
And in the end, the project had been given up just before we could release the alpha demo due to people's waning interests in creating for the project.
And that alpha was way more finished than this game was.
two freaking thousand dollars to spend on assets. And couldn't even be bothered to change the UI or proofread the script before releasing it.