Games by JimD Newsletter – ZE:SH Part 3 Release & Bugs

Welcome to my 54th newsletter!  I am still in the midst of home renovations which have not gone very well. It’s a constant distraction, but at least it has not slowed down my efforts with both of my currently active games. I will say I doubt I will ever go through home reservations of this scope again.

As you know, Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 3 released at the beginning of this month! I’m going to talk about the reception received, bug fixes, and my schedule going forward with it. I have a few things planned for Part 3, even though my attention has shifted to Part 4. I will get into both of those shortly, and am excited to share good news with you.

In this newsletter, I will talk about ZE: Safe Haven, Parts 3 and 4 and a quick note on the True Faith patch for Vampire: The Masquerade - Out for Blood

Let’s get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 3 & 4

Part 3 released on March 3! If you are reading this newsletter, I am fairly certain you have purchased it, and so I thank you for your continued support. I don’t receive official numbers until my next round of monthly reports sent by Hosted Games, but a after a quick email exchange with my editor, I learned that Part 3 has sold extremely well. After three years of development, I was concerned that I had lost many fans after Part 2 released. Even though I published a free update for Part 2, many casual fans didn’t like the delay, and I certainly worried it would affect sales of Part 3. It sounds like that’s not the case, and I’m so thankful that people were patient and supportive.

What does this mean for the series? Between the number of sales I am anticipating and the support I received from Patreon, I am fairly certain Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven is here to stay for a while. I have already committed to Part 4 and Part 5. Sometime during development of Part 5, I will need to decide on whether or not to continue. It really comes down to the continued support and interest from my readers. So far, it seems like everyone is enjoying the characters and story, but that could change. Some people have raised interest in seeing endings for Part 5. I really see the number of parts as being arbitrary. It comes down to telling a story and continuing for as long as people enjoy shaping their characters in the world we have built.

Now let’s turn our attention to a completely different topic, bugs. Part 3 has released with a lot of bugs. A lot. I have dozens and dozens of reports of bugs I am dealing with. Even though I felt incredibly disappointed in myself for letting a game release with all these errors, after talking with a few other writers recently and voicing my own frustrations, we have all agreed that the world of beta testing has vastly changed.

During the time I wrote the original Zombie Exodus, there were only a few other Works in Progress out for testing through the forums. Nowadays there are dozens of WIPs all competing for the attention of readers. I used to do much of my beta testing through closed groups but often received only a few dedicated testers. I then opened it up to the public and received more help but still not nearly as much as required for a game as complex as this one. There are just too few testers for all of the games out there to be tested.

Don’t get me wrong — I appreciate any help. Even if you send in one bug report that leads to a fix, I appreciate you. With the sheer size of the games I release, I need considerable beta testing, and there just are not enough testers available these days. That means the first few weeks of release become a glorified Beta test.

I have already released one major patch and have another one ready to go out tomorrow. I was hoping to put it out yesterday, but I wanted to continue to add as much as I can to make this all run much smoother.

Turning to Part 4. It’s at 51,000 words so far, around 11,000 words more this month. Again, that’s not where I want to be, and I hope to add another 4000 words this week before the Beta test. I have had to put so much time into Part 3, that I have not had as much dedicated time for Part 4. I will say that I am adding some romantic interactions in chapter 13 that should be of interest to everyone.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Out for Blood

I continue to work on the True Faith patch for Out for Blood. Because of my continued work on Part 3 of ZE:SH, I have had to put Out for Blood to the side temporarily. After the beta release of Part 4 of ZE;SH, I will be renewing my efforts for the new patch for OfB.

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