Also, if you're not planning to monetize the game, you could open source it so you could receive help from the community. In theory, it could cut down the time for updates.
I like the suggestion of facial expressions...the issue with them is that they require new game assets which I'm very slow and bad at producing. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when it comes to game assets. I've started reaching out to artists in order to fix that problem.
As for the monetization and FOSS:
Right now my intentions are to keep the game free at least during the development of it. I don't even know if the game will have a complete state. Since I don't intend to be alone on the project right now (I need at least an artist) I can't promise that the intentions will remain the same. I will think about that much more after I talk with my potential future partner. That also partially answers the state of source code, it will be closed indefinitely.
Side note: I immensely respect FOSS even though I never practiced it myself. And a side note to the side note, I like working alone when it comes to programming so I will politely decline everyone who wants to contribute with code for now.