Games by JimD Newsletter – Safe Haven, Artwork, and StoryLoom!

Welcome to my 63rd newsletter! It's the holiday season, so Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Winter Solstice. Forgive me if I missed any other nearby holidays. I love this time of year because it lifts the mood of the people around me. Also, I get a week off from my regular job between Christmas and New Year's. I use that time to put in extra work on my games, plan for the year ahead, and work out items on my bugs list.

For the past few Decembers, I have always worked on Safe Haven and some other game. This year, it has been amazing to focus on Safe Haven alone. I am doing a short assignment for a new platform called StoryLoom, but it's a much less time-consuming endeavor. Before anyone gets worried that it will take away from ZESH, please read my section below.

Safe Haven is progressing very well, and I'm enjoying writing short missions. I will also describe more about them below.

This month in the newsletter, like always, I will provide updates on my games and info on upcoming releases. Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is currently at 220,000 words, over 20,000 more this month. I've been pumping out words daily and keeping my schedule on track, so I should be pushing over 25,000 words for this month's closed beta release.

If you use Reddit (the popular content and topic-sharing social media platform), you may subscribe to the Choice of Games subreddit or the Hosted Games subreddit. There has been a general backlash to the artwork in recent CoG titles. The artwork has not been as polished as those found in HG titles. Also, in several CoG games, there is no opportunity to hide artwork, and there are new descriptions of characters since artwork is available. This has generally been met with dislike by readers posting on Reddit.

On the other hand, some of the more popular HG titles include artwork and text descriptions of characters. In some cases, the stat screen lists artwork in a reference or compendium. The artwork is generally better.

I ran a quick poll on my Discord on whether or not I should include artwork of popular characters in ZESH. The replies were overwhelmingly in favor of including artwork. Of the 169 votes, 131 voted "I would love to see artwork for each character." That's 78% of the players voting for artwork. With that number of votes, I plan on adding artwork to ZESH.

With this decision, I can already predict a few questions. I'm going to answer them for you before you ask.

• Yes, I will be commissioning artwork from working artists. I will not be using AI-generated artwork, nor will I be using a program like ArtBreeder.
• I will not charge for artwork through Patreon or DLC.

Adding artwork will take time. Commissions genuinely take one month apiece and cost several hundred dollars each. The good news is that I will run polls on Patreon for you to vote on the subject of the next portrait.

I have also started on missions, the first one involving a trip with Brody and Madison to a strip mall. Each mission will still have several choices that will impact the rest of your game. There will be a variety of missions, and you will have the option to visit them in each chapter. That means if you don't visit a specific location in chapter 14, it will be available to you in chapter 15.

I am also adding more scenes with each romantic option, which has been the most requested feature.

Stories from the Outbreak

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, a new DLC will be added to the app, which contains noninteractive stories about various major characters. Ten stories in total will be released. Choice of Games has set the release date for February 2, 2023. The release will cost $0.99 for a week and then will go up to $1.99. These stories are available on Patreon but will be removed before they are released in the app.

StoryLoom

I was approached to write for a game company just starting up called StoryLoom. They are part of a much larger group, Pixelberry, makers of the popular app, Choices. They had a short-term assignment to create a simple interactive story using their web-based tool. At first, I wasn't interested. You may remember my work for FableLabs that turned into a fiasco. What's different about StoryLoom is that they offered to pay upfront for any work I do. Their tool is extremely easy to use, and games are not complex. I still managed to learn variable creation to track players' choices and use them to create impact. However, it's much more graphic based and has far fewer features. Since I've been meeting all of my goals for ZESH, I decided to try out their system, and I was able to complete a chapter of a game in a week.

To be completely transparent, I can use the money that they are giving me. I've had a lot of unexpected medical bills recently, and the money I will make from StoryLoom will help pay them off. Also, I only intend to write for them in my spare time. I'm enjoying the simplicity of it.

I don't make anything from direct sales of the game, but there's a leaderboard. If the game receives lots of views, I can earn bonuses. The game is free to play if you sign up. (You receive 100 free credits, and chapters cost 1 credit).

Here's the synopsis: "Alex awakens in a jail cell with no memory of his past. He soon learns he's on trial for murder and will need to defend himself or be imprisoned for the rest of his life. This sets him on a journey of twists and turns and self-discovery."

Here's the link to play it: https://storyloom.com/stories/72c2986c-7bad-404b-6d54-ca41d6d5e5e3 

Vampire: The Masquerade — Out for Blood

VTM-Out for Blood's next update, the True Faith Patch, will release on February 2, 2023.

That's all for this month. Until next time, stay safe, and thank you for your support!