Probably they are, already. We are at the place of the story where there is no space to grow but to reveal the secrets, get the answers instead of bring the new questions and manage branches which we already have.
DPC told about SGs already. He will satisfy all possible paths in general but only partially in each new episode, speaking of SGs. Some of SGs will have nothing from time to time and they will exchange from episode to episode. We already seen it in EP9 and EP10 and even before in S1-2. And the most part of content will be getting the side girls with a real potential paths, while the ones with filler role (Camila, Sarah, Mel, a bunch of dormies, etc) are exist only to bring us some lewd scenes from time to time. MGs are in much better position, they will always get content and amount of it will be balanced as much as possible.
Long animations was new for EP9, but now it's a routine and with his new rigs it's not a big deal either. He was quite modest with animations in EP10 btw. The only long one was a BBQ party intro. Nothing compared to EP9 3 long ass animations.
Regarding 60 fps... well, probably he should use the middle path and do interpolation instead of native 60 fps rendering. But honestly, 60 fps is looks much smoother than 30. If it doesn't increase the development time and makes him happy, since rigs don't stay idle periodically - I'm ok with them. The thing is, that the 30fps will probably won't decrease the dev time either. At least now.
What else mini-games do you expect? I think he didn't lied when he said he did the base work and most of them till the rest of the game. He is done with them for Season 3 and I don't expect something significant or brand new in Season 4, because this season supposed to be quite special and the last half of it will barely have something like new mini-games. Probably none at all, since we will be in the phase of highly branched story outcomes and endings. Even if he will bring some new ones, they will not be so complicated and difficult to code as it was with the party planner and so on.
Now to the free roams and big events. How much of this did we had in EP10? 3 events, mostly. DIK mansion party aftermath and cleaning. BBQ party and Thanksgiving at Maya's place. All other ones are minor and was ranged from middle to tiny ones. And he mentioned that he already done with at least 2 big events (probably free roams). And that sounded promising. Because the other facts are:
- more than 50% of lewd scenes are done and only 8 was left 2 weeks ago and he said that 2 more was almost ready. So at this moment and probably following the next status updates he will only have to complete the 6. And this is amazing, since it's not only about the posing, but rendering them too. It's safe to assume that they are completely done - posed and rendered.
- mini-games are done, tweaking and adding content to the existent ones is quite easy task.
- at least 2 big events (free roams) are done too, which compairing to EP10 is also more than 50% currently.
The rest and major part of work left are canon and branched scenes, static renders and writing.
Throwing 1-2 lewd scenes for 1-time fuck purposes as it was with Heather in EP9 or dorm girls in EP8 is not that hard.
I'm not so sure about the last episodes and such potential huge development time for them. He will have to unroll all the possible outcomes of branches and sub-branches and not fuck up and spoil the whole game, because the end is the most important part, bring us consequences and so on, but at the same time the last episodes are usually quite linear. I'm not even sure that we will have a free roams (at least the big ones) and mini-games in the last episodes. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see it useful in the epilogue part.
Despite all his obsession and constant desire to add or improve something, he is still aware that the game cannot be in development for 10 years or even more. And that the time for such games is running out and that the gap in quality between the first and last episodes is getting bigger and bigger. It's no news that many players are scared off by the visual part of the first season. Because you have to hook and hold on the old players and bring the new ones. What the new ones have to start with? Right, from the first episodes, the first season... The more years will past from now, the more awful it will look and feel for new players and the more old players will be lost due to different circumstances. At the same time, it is also impossible to remaster and pause the current development in order to bring the game and its visual part to a common denominator at the moment, and he has already expressed his point of view on this matter. That if it will be done, it will be only after the release of the final episode.
