I'll clarify things a bit (I'll repeat this in Patreon's post tomorrow). The game is in the proofreading phase. We'll try to finish it before Christmas, but there's a chance we might be a couple of days late. While the script is being proofread, I'm working on the animations. But there were some problems here, on December 14, one of my GPUs died. It's good that I had time to finish all the static renders, bad that I didn't have time to finish animations. Therefore, the rendering speed was reduced by half. I wish I could just go to the store the same day and buy a new one, but eleven months of paused payments make themselves known, and at the moment I just can't afford it.
So I used to render about 3-4 animations in a day, now only 2. At the moment, 24 animations are ready. By the time of release will be ready probably ~35. By the end of the year, along with the bugfix, I'll release a dozen more. Objectively speaking, even these animations won't be enough. But better this than another delay.
The only way I see the game itself being the cause of the delay is if he completely panicked over finishing the game, because he's afraid he can't start a new game people will still be willing to pay for, so there's a fear that actually ending the game will cause a huge negative financial impact. Which is why you see a lot of devs just endlessly pad out their stories or keep stretching them out long after they should have ended - it feels more comfortable and safe working on the thing you're already familiar with than ending it to start a new venture. Especially if you don't have any good ideas for a new project.
No. In fact, it's the opposite. I've been eager to start a new game for a long time now, but I can't do it until I finish this one. Unlike BARS (which I did almost blindly), for the new game I have an idea, I have experience, and a strong vision of how things should be done. So it's going to be interesting. Of course, I understand that my income will drop, but at the same time I'll be able to resume my payments on Patreon with a clear conscience. So it's a win-win situation.