jimdattilo

Games by JimD Newsletter – Game Updates, Just a Few More Months

Added 2025-02-20 17:21:59 +0000 UTC

Welcome to my 88th newsletter! February is a short month, but I have been working steadily on Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4. I have been writing over 30,000 words per month since I decided to focus on it. I will review all the new additions for this month, but I'm on track to send the files to Choice of Games (technically, Hosted Games) by the end of April.

I've been coming up with a schedule for other work after Part 4 is finished. I will discuss this more below, but I want to focus on one game at a time for a while. It is the best way to keep the momentum going, but I'm open to hearing from everyone.

In this newsletter, I will go over my development plans, like I always do.

Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is 762,000 words, with over 29,000 words added this month!

This month, I again worked on the scene that will bridge the gap between chapters. Here is exactly what I have worked on so far:

Finished the Dungeons & Dragons minigame.
Wrote a scene where you can contact Fred over the long-range radio as he travels to find his mother in Santa Fe.
Wrote a scene where you can have a romantic picnic with August.
Wrote a very long scene in which you can propose to your primary or secondary romantic partner. I customized every romantic partner aside from the new potential partners (August, Anders, Allison, and Monica) since they are too new. Romantic partners may reject your proposal, and I even wrote customized scenes for rejections.
Wrote a scene where you can contact the Silverthorne militia to pick up Benton if he is still at the junkyard.
Wrote a scene where you can allow Benton to leave the junkyard if he is still there.
Worked on improvements for the junkyard and crafting.

I still have five more days until the next beta test, so I hope to add more each day until then.

Next month, I will finish this bridge chapter and work on chapter 17, which is probably one of the most intense scenes in the game so far.

Development after Part 4

I have been considering my plans for what to work on after I turn in Part 4. Working on multiple games stretches out the timeline for each game. I used to enjoy working on multiple projects simultaneously because I never felt burned out. But it isn't easy to jump back and forth between games. I never feel like I'm accomplishing anything, and it makes the overall development time too lengthy.

Therefore, I have decided to focus on one interactive fiction project at a time.

Another concern is money. I don't do this for money, but I am becoming concerned about my finances. As many of you know, I work in medical research in the US. Recent executive orders have threatened to lower the medical research budget. Whether people agree with this is somewhat irrelevant. I risk losing my job at a university if this defunding occurs. The money I make from games is what I can fall back on.

Patreon money helps each month, but my overall donation amount has decreased each month. This is likely because of competition between other games in development, people unable to pay for donations due to their financial situations, and the fact that I have not published in a while. I have considered raising prices, but I hate to do so.

The most money that I make is when I publish. Royalties also help, but those royalties drop when you haven't published in several years.

I have to think about using my time in the most impactful way to make my fans happy and support myself and my family.

My goal this year is to finish Zombie Exodus: Stronghold. It will likely be a single game, and it is already a third of the way finished. If I dedicate my time to it, I can finish it by the end of this year.

I'm still on the fence about this decision.