jimdattilo

Games by JimD Newsletter – Game Updates, New Focus

Added 2024-12-20 17:40:06 +0000 UTC

Welcome to my 86th newsletter, and Happy Holidays! I love this time of year but haven't gotten into the holiday spirit as much as in past years. I have been working a lot, and the holidays crept up on me. Christmas is here, and New Year's Eve is coming quickly. A friend is getting married on December 29, my first black-tie wedding. So it's going to be a busy end of the year.

In other news, I am steadily working on Safe Haven and trying to wrap up everything by early next year. I will discuss this more below, but I'm really trying to focus on one game right now.

In this newsletter, I will also go over my other games in development, like I always do.

Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is 702,000 words, with over 24,000 words added this month! I should have no problem hitting at least 30,000 words this month.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am currently focusing on one game at a time. It's easy to get into the rhythm of working on multiple games, and I enjoy doing so in normal circumstances. It helps me have no writer's block because I can switch around and not get bored of any storyline.

However, it also keeps me from finishing games. I realize that many readers get frustrated with long delays between parts. Many of my followers show more patience than average readers because longer delays mean more content. But we are getting to a point where casual readers are drifting off, knowing that I want to focus on Part 4 and then return to other games mentioned below.

I wrapped up the scene with the River Dogs in chapter 15 and added a bit to chapter 17 this month. Next month, I will focus on hobbies, crafting, junkyard management, group management, etc. I also want to start editing to ensure fewer bugs get through to release and add things that have been requested.

In terms of the currently released game, I also want to take some time next week to fix bugs like the crafting issue and other things that have been reported. Fixing a game that's already been released takes a long time. You have to run lots of automated tests that take hours to do with a game of this size because you don't want to introduce new bugs along the way.

I'm looking forward to showing you Part 4 in the coming months, and I plan to still send the files to Hosted Games, my publisher, in April 2025. Keep in mind it takes them months to edit and publish the game. I'm hoping they can have it done for Halloween.