jimdattilo

Games by JimD Newsletter – Game Updates, Updated Schedule

Added 2025-05-21 18:19:28 +0000 UTC

Welcome to my 91st newsletter! I can’t believe it’s May already. I’m still working hard on Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4, and actually finalizing the end of chapter 17. I’ll talk more about what I plan to do for June. I should be ready to submit it in July.

Those of you who have been part of my Patreon for a while and may follow other content creators on Patreon may see that people are raising prices over time. I have no plans to do so. I think that the extras and rewards I give are reasonably priced. Even with how inflation and prices are going in the US, where I live, I would rather keep my subscription tiers priced the same.

I’m also working again on artwork with my artist. She worked on characters for Stronghold for a while, but now is back to doing Safe Haven.

In this newsletter, I will review my development plans, as always.

Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is 884,000 words, with over 22,000 words added this month! If you keep track month to month, you might notice that the word count took a huge jump this month. While I wrote 22,000 words so far, I forgot to add one of the other major files to the word count. So now Part 4 is 884k words. This will be the biggest part so far.

I plan to wrap up chapter 17 by the beginning of next month and then go back and add some other content, like the arguments between multiple romantic interests. I may also want to add some placeholder content for teenager, hacker, and soldier storylines. I want to at least get them started in Part 4.

Next month, I will edit, playtest, and add content that people have requested. I should be able to get all of that done by mid-July and send it off to Hosted Games for editing and production. I don't know how long they will be doing their part. Next month, I will email them to let them know it’s coming. I may get a better sense of when they will be publishing it.

Zombie Exodus: Stronghold

Stronghold is up to 150,000 words so far. If you are interested in testing each new chapter, please check out the link below:

https://cogdemos.ink/play/jimd/zombie-exodus-stronghold-public-beta/mygame/

When I start developing Stronghold again, I will work on chapter 6. About two months ago, I reworked the outline and believe it should be about fifteen chapters. That number may change, but I think it’s a reasonable estimate. I’m aiming for the entire game to be roughly 300,000 words. I believe I can accomplish a lot in six months.