Games by JimD Newsletter – The Future of Safe Haven

Hello again, everyone! Though I have some good news to share in this newsletter, I start with a somber note about something you’re all becoming acutely aware of — the coronavirus and its impact on our lives. As of the time of this writing, I am self-isolated in my home in New Jersey in the USA with my wife and my dog. I’ve already been on lockdown for seven days, and I’m doing well. I have no signs of infection and have been in generally good spirits. My normal workday can be done fully remote, so the lockdown has not affected my ability to do my job or my writing. I am extremely lucky that I am able to sustain myself financially during this period, and my heart goes out to those of you who are without a job or going through financial hardships or dealing with illness.

As a writer of apocalyptic stories, this experience is surreal. I use words like “infection” and “outbreak” so often while writing my games that their use in normal life has more of an impact for me. While my games are mostly fantasy, I am now seeing situations where hoarding of supplies and isolation are completely real. I hope civilization does not devolve into more of the situations I write about.

We are all dealing with this specific strain of the coronavirus and many of us will have to deal with the COVID-19 disease. I wish you all health and safety in the coming months. We are all citizens of the world, and the virus knows no border.

Though updates on my game seem trivial at this point, I’m trying to keep to a normal schedule and provide a distraction to you all from current events. In this newsletter I’ll tell you some positive news about Safe Haven, as well as a shift in the timeline for Dead Zone.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven

I am excited to say that my Patreon goal for a Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4 has been met! As long as the Patreon maintains at or above $1250, I will continue to write the series with Part 4. At the very moment, I am thirty-one dollars above the goal, and my hope is that it will be maintained throughout the rest of the year. It also means that as soon as Part 3 is published, I will immediately begin writing the next part.

So when will this game end? As always, I leave it up to my readers. When I first started writing the original Zombie Exodus, I had a clear vision of how the game would end. For Safe Haven, I have had a general idea on how the game would end but have kept some flexibility in when we would get to that end. Although I enjoyed writing the characters in the first game, and certainly some of those characters are favorites among my readers, Safe Haven feels different. It has so much more potential to continue into the future that I currently see no end in sight.

My publisher, Hosted Games, suggested I end it after three parts. Like many other games and movies and books, a three set arc is common. However, I envision this game more like a television series or comic book in that each part is an ending of one unit of an entire story. There will be endings in Part 3, but they will not be The End.

In other news about Safe Haven, I am finishing up coding the last of chapter 8 and starting chapter 9. Because of the length of chapter 8 and how many missions it had, I have reworked the research mission and moved it to chapter 9. I will be posting a revised version for my testers next week. I have also coded a large mission which will make up most of chapter 10. Ethan Underhill contributed this mission, so Part 3 is close to being three full chapters already. Over the next few months, I will also write conversations that you can have with each character, will be introducing a few new characters that will be recruitable, and will finish romantic scenes with each of the ROs.

Zombie Exodus: Dead Zone

As you may know, Dead Zone is being written by Ethan Underhill and coded and produced by me. Ethan’s plan was to spend the next few months writing the entire game. Due to the upheaval caused by the coronavirus, he will have to temporarily suspend writing the game as he explains on his Facebook page.. This game will very much continue to be written at a later date, and I assure you it will be produced. However, no one predicted the changes we will all face due to this pandemic, and Ethan is unsure of when he can begin writing again. I will keep you all posted on any news on this game.

New Choice of Games Project

My secret project for Choice of Games continues as planned. I have been doing more planning and working with CoG on promotional aspects of the game. Since I really cannot discuss anything more on the game, I will just leave you with my hope that more can be revealed in April. I know it’s coming soon, and the announcement will be a big one. Until then, I’m focused on ZESH.

In Conclusion

As we are all dealing with this pandemic, I wish every one of my readers health and safety over the next few months or for as long as we are faced with the threat of this virus. Thank you to all of you who continue to support me and to enjoy reading my games. I can honestly say you all keep striving to continue, and through my games I hope I can help you escape from reality for at least a little while.