Even after reading your message twice, I am still unable to see the impact of Seymour as something more than just moving the story forward. There are 3 options: "ignore him", "there no other choice work with him" and "yes daddy". Some dialog will be different, but I bet it won't be by much. Only time will tell, I will check the scripts once ch10 will be out.
I’m not denying that the development of chapter 9 was significantly slower than the previous ones, even if we factor in any increased complexity. Eva was also open about being burnt out through parts of the work with that chapter and the rework. Though I also seem to remember
BloodyMares talking about the code and the variables just for the trip with Alison as far more complex than anything in the game up until then. Chapter 10 is also taking more time than the earlier chapters, but I'm waiting until it's released to draw final conclusions on the reasons for that.
What I think you’re oversimplifying, is how you’re talking about it as if the player choices and the dialogue variations are the only things that make the story complex. It's easy to quantify, but it doesn't tell the whole picture. After all, a novel can be extremely complex even if there's no player choices or dialogue variations.
Also you're right that the scene at the end of chapter 9 gives three different options. That's a good example of how the game changes between opening up different paths and variations and narrowing it down. But as I tried to explain, the point where it's getting complex, is when those options start affecting other paths in the coming chapters.
I wasn't trying to argue that the coming chapters necessarily will be more complex than the earlier ones, but since we're already talking about it: I think there's a good chance they might be. As I mentioned, Eva should really try to keep things simple and limit the complexity, but chapter 9 introduces two new variables that will be among the most important ones in the whole game—Lena and Ian's relationship status and Lena's deal with Seymour. Those variables will have a significant impact on both the different relationships and job options of both protagonists. I'm struggling to see how that won't increase the complexity, even if Eva makes sure to keep it as simple as possible, and even if the consequences of it only will come into play gradually.
All this complexity talk ignores that there is not a completely new path after each decision, there are several paths (cafe gets saved by Lena modelling/singing; cafe goes broke) and later decisions just change to an already existing path. For example Lena can lose her job at the restaurant early on except if she sleeps with Robert. Now she lost the job anyways. Both ways she is now at the same spot, so what were the differences? All restaurant scenes after she can lose the job the first time were optional and she got less money. I can't remember any scenes blocked by still working. That is not that hard to write. EvaKiss is aware of that and she limits the amount of possible paths not allowing certain decisions to simplify the paths.
Yes, you're right about all of this. I wasn't trying to ignore it, I was just trying to prevent my post from becoming longer than ORS' scripts. Also the non-disclosure agreement might be a tool for Eva to keep the path from getting too tangled in with all the others, at least in the short run. Still I think it's obvious the deal with Seymour and the relationship between Ian and Lena will add another level to the complexity to the story. And considering how the relationship was set up, with the different relationships options (just friends, friends with benefits, open relationship, commited relationship) together with how both protagonists had the chance to cheat immediately afterwards, I get the impression that this isn't where Eva will hold back to keep things as simple as possible.
Also I think it's worth mentioning—even though it's obvious—that the size of the story naturally is just getting bigger and bigger, even if the amount of paths might be more constant. That doesn't necessarily reflect in the amount of variations and choices and so on, but it makes things more complex for Eva. Just deciding how to prevent the amount of paths from growing, and which variables will come into play in the different scenes, is becoming more difficult as the story's gradually growing.
