I am a software dev myself, and have been watching this game eagerly since the very first beta.
I have had crunch-time where I sat 40 hrs straight to finish a game I was making for a school assignment and seen what miracles can be done in such a short time with a focused mind and high motivation.
The game turned out great, but it had WAY too little content, and was shallow on the gameplay side.I had spent most of my time creating the framework for moddability and easy content creation. In the end I just didn't have time to use my easy content creation for anything more than putting together one level and a bossfight.
I have also worked 12hr+ days for 3 months and know that it sucks the will out of you to ever program again.
They're really in a pickle since August is too early and February too late =/
I know that Elemental will be great in the end, but I'm just fearing that a too early release will affect the first impression of this game too much. Lets hope it isn't so!