Games by JimD Newsletter – Game Updates, Watch Party, Future Plans

Welcome to my 84th newsletter! This week, I received a harsh email about my schedule for "finishing" the Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven. The email from a reader of my game asked why it is taking so long to finish the story and stated that each part takes too long to release. Some harsh language was used to suggest that I am not working hard enough and need to focus more on Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven.

I try to reply to every email, even negative ones, so I stated the usual reasons for the timeline of my games: I work a full-time job, have multiple projects, and include so much content that it takes time to write and edit.

The reader wrote back to me and had more negative things to say. At this point, I chose to ignore him, but it did help me to think about my timeline for this game.

The first part was released on October 28, 2016. Part 2 was released on March 22, 2018. I then released an update for Part 2, which added 300,000 words about a year later. I then released Part 3 on March 3, 2022. The game has been releasing new parts every three years.

Currently, the game is up to 2.2 million words (1.6 million published and over 600,000 in Part 4). If you look at other Hosted Games titles, the trend is that they are increasing in size. Games like Fallen Hero and Lords of Infinity have over a million words for their newest releases. They also take years to produce.

I don't need to defend my timeline, but I have no trouble explaining it to people. The truth is that most successful games require large amounts of new content. Readers want long stories with player agency and lots of impactful choices. Making those games takes a while.

In this newsletter, I will discuss game updates, an upcoming watch party, and plans for my games.

Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is 660,000 words, with over 16,000 words added this month!

As most of you have come to know, I tend to go overboard when writing fight scenes. Chapter 15 is getting more extensive than expected because I wanted to include fight scenes with other groups. I thought I would be done this month, but I don't know what I was thinking. With the amount of content I hope to include, it will likely be finished by the end of this year (which is only a few months away).

In other news, one of my best friends, a moderator for my GamesByJimD Discord server, SleepyBunny, has never seen The Walking Dead television series. We thought it would be fun to watch it together, and it gave us the idea to watch it with fans of my games as well. We would watch one episode per week and set up a channel on Discord for people to watch and chat in text to discuss the episode in real time.

I posted a poll on Patreon and my Discord, and at least 50 people are interested. I don't expect everyone to show up, but I will post more information soon on how you can participate.

As for future plans, I want to assure everyone that Safe Haven is my priority. Not every author can work on multiple titles, but I have consistently written over 20,000 words per month on this title. I plan to finish by April of next year and have it published in the same year. I will then begin working on Part 5. At the moment, the game will continue to at least Part 6. It's hard to say what will happen after that.

Zombie Exodus: Stronghold

Stronghold is up to 133,000 words so far. That means I have added 17,000 words this month. 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/ 

I am finishing chapter 6, in which you finally meet one of the Directors of Stronghold, who becomes an ally in your search for a cure for the Zeta virus and a safe path out of the fortress. It's an insightful scene with lots of information to uncover. It also gives you an opportunity to talk to your fellow group members and get to know them better.

I plan to finish chapter 6 this month and update the demo. I will also add a way to increase your character's skill levels.

Deadbury Academy

Deadbury Academy has been updated, and I posted a new demo at the following location.

https://cogdemos.ink/play/jimd/deadbury-academy/mygame/

The game has been rewritten based on feedback from people who played the first demo. Unfortunately, I have not had as much time to work on this title, but I plan to get back to it once Stronghold is released.

That's all for this month.