[Edi]

New versions have come out in as little as three days, but the last three or four versions have had a longer time between them because many more new features have been added each time.

Some of those have been fairly big changes, such as the addition of the Dwarf Queen class in 2.84, lots of new spells (and more to come, no doubt), AI improvements (which is a fairly big deal, since each of the 17 classes has a separately programmed AI) and entirely new mechanics (water breathing items, for one).

The frequency of versions is also very much dependent on how much available time Johan has to devote to the project. And where graphics are concerned, how much time Kristoffer has too.

I don't know if it will take seven months but it certainly will not be in 2011. Johan's working hard and so are the testers too, you can count on that.

The final product is certainly worth waiting for.

Besides, testing takes time. Even using debug commands, some stuff can be devilishly hard to find since it is either complex, hard to spot or both or requires specific preconditions that can only be set up after a fair amount of time (even with accelerated progress).