AWAM will never be finished because in maybe even less than 5-10 years will be outdated completely. I do not know many things regarding game development but I have the feeling that L&P is not full time Dev anymore. The continuity of the game has been lost and events out of no where and without any sense has been added like the school threesome and Sophia's groping from Aiden's friends. I do not expect from an adult game to be fully realistic but the latter was absolute stupidity. In any case it still remains one of the best adult VN around.
It is not like he will be penalized by the AVN Guild for failing to complete AWAM. He can opt for the 'take the money and run' scenario.
I think the Steam release will soak up significant time if he is trying to do it right. He could release it as 'Season 1' and then sell the 'franchise' to another creator based on how well he did on Steam combined with average monthly earnings for the last X months.
As it stands - AWAM has longevity as an idea but not as an AVN. How many saves get broken with minor updates to Renpy let alone whole number Renpy updates; what kind of hardware investment will he need to make the upgrade to 1080p, 1440, and eventually 2K for resolution? This is not needed to be competitive now but given AWAM's 25+ years or more until completion, L&P will have to invest in the hardware for the upgrades.
What kind of fidelity will be needed for animations that 'pop' and are competitive with top tier AVNs in 10 years? 20 years?
What about the creators who are embedding voice over into animations using AI?
We're already seeing a major influx of AVNs using AI for image creation. These images are nowhere near as good as those in top tier AVNs, but I could see AI assists in the next 5-10 years (for example, take an image and - using a series of predictive motions based on instructions to the AI, add in motion like turning the heads of characters to follow another character who is moving or as different characters talk. This would be akin to taking a .jpeg image and turning it into a .gif file based on canned instructions AI programmers will sell as mods to Daz and other image creation software).
How will this impact AWAM's ability to stay competitive.
The story used to be a major part of AWAM's competitiveness but that is no longer the case as L&P has tried to cater to so many different parts of his fan base that the story is effectively broken as a cohesive work. It is now just a series of related vignettes, due in part to the huge slow down in development speed.
Milfy City was one of my favorite AVNs when it came out but, when you compare it's graphics to top tier AVNs now? It is no longer a top tier creation. AWAM is heading for this same result unless L&P invests major $ in hardware and team building since he will be trying to increase speed of development while he redoes the early parts of AWAM - and we all know how well L&P does with team building...
When will L&P have to declare a lock on AWAM part 2 and then make the major upgrades to start part 3? Who will be performing the remaster of both parts 1 & 2 while part 3 has moved on to higher resolutions, more complex animations and some level of AI assist?
How many of us will be labeled 'Rats' for telling the truth to someone who does not want to/is unable to adapt?