Games by JimD Newsletter – July Project Updates

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I will be home for a while due to the continuing shutdown in my area. As you may know, I work peripherally in healthcare at a university hospital in Philadelphia. Since I primarily work in IT, we are not required nor permitted to work on site. Luckily for me, I can do all of my work at home. Since my commute time was around two hours a day, I am finding my new schedule more suitable to writing. Though I still put in a solid eight hours or more for my normal job, I have been able to find more hours to write. Between the two games I am currently developing, so far in July I have written over 40,000 words. That’s more than I’ve ever written in a single month. Even though I am very tired of social distancing, I appreciate the need to do so and at least am using my time to progress my stories.

As usual in this newsletter I will give you an update on my progress. There will be some spoilers below, but I will give you a warning before discussing anything related to specific content.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 3

Development of Part 3 is up to 295,000 words with my next milestone coming July 25th which should push the game to 300,000 words.

I’ve had to make some adjustments this month on what I am writing until I finish Part 3. This month I was supposed to start the soldier storyline, but that got pushed back. After talking with Ethan and looking at my time from now until the end of the year, I have revised my outline. Mostly this relates to Patreon content that I promise as a result of the polls you all fill out. When I post a poll, I feel it is like a contract between me and my supporters. Therefore I have to try to accommodate the scenarios and new characters on which you vote.

Sometimes I need to push back certain content to make room for other content. For example, the airport scenario and the helping hands scenario became rather lengthy scenarios. I started writing helping hands and found I had barely scratched the surface of this mission after 6000 words. If I were to focus on that mission to include in Part 3, it would push back the publication another 3 to 4 months. Therefore I am moving it to Part 4.

One of the other big missions I have had to add (incoming spoiler) involves a family of morticians that have set up camp in an abandoned train yard. I have added this mission after chapter 8, and this new mission will be revealed in the beta on July 25.

This mission is quite unique in that it is the first major mission where you decide the fate of another group of survivors. You can be friendly, diplomatic, and even helpful to them or you can rob or even slaughter them. Though many players in this game choose to be “good” over “evil”, I tend to feel the core of my players play the story several times and may choose to play as a bandit or raider at least once. To me, this is where good replayability exists. I don’t want my games to give fake choices or railroad my players too often. While some of this is unavoidable given the workload of making truly open ended choices, one of the strengths of my games is how your choices truly impact the story going forward. There is no right or wrong in how you decide to approach this mission. If you are friendly or aggressive, you will likely survive the scenario. However, each approach has consequences. Even a friendly approach may have negative consequences. You will have to continue the story to see how it unfolds.

Other than this mission, I should be back to my normal schedule in August. I still expect to add the soldier storyline, Safe Haven Lancelot, the scientist storyline where you continue researching the virus and possibly experimenting with it, finishing romantic encounters, adding conversations, and other smaller scenes such as training your pet.

Zombie Exodus: Dead Zone 

Dead Zone is still in development by Ethan Underhill. I don’t have any news to report other than Ethan continues to work on it. If you would like more information, feel free to visit Ethan’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EthanDavidUnderhill/.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Out for Blood

My writing for this project has not slowed down. I have a deadline for the end of September and have been adding content at a fevered pace. I am not allowed to conduct any beta testing outside of a few testers approved by Choice of Games. However, in October or November, Choice of Games will open submissions for participants in a closed beta. I will let you all know when this becomes possible. I also ask that each of you go to the Steam page for the game and add it to your wish list. Even if you don’t intend to buy the game, it will help me out greatly. The more people who add it to the wish list, the higher the visibility the game receives. You will also be able to view a trailer for the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290350/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Out_for_Blood/

For those of you who have played Vampire: the Masquerade, you will be happy to know I have coded a stat page for my game that looks similar to the official character sheet. If you have played the very popular game, Vampire: the Masquerade—Bloodlines, you will be familiar with this style of sheet. It’s different than you will be used to with other Choice of Games stories, but it works exactly like the official game. After I hand in the first draft in September, I will spend some time editing the game, but most of my attention will shift to ZE:SH Part 3.

Until next time, stay safe and thank you for all of your support!