Games by JimD Newsletter – Zombies and Doctors

Hello friends, readers, and choice gamers! It’s the end of the summer, and I’ve been busy writing and planning out my schedule for the next year or so. This newsletter will include updates on my games as usual, and I’m also highlighting a large-scale mission going into Part 3. Finally, I have a bit of personal news to share will hopefully not affect the development of any of my games (but may).

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven

This month, I’ll be publishing the next test update sitting around 90,000 words. Chapter 8 is outlined and the skeleton is complete, so I am filling out placeholders next for things like PC conversations, romantic scenes, and the ends of missions previously written. With chapter 8 progressing toward a word count of at least 125,000 words, it’s already quite long. Considering Part 3 will entail chapters 8-12, that’s a lot of story. As with many of my games, the replayability is extensive.

On the topic of replay, I tend to write my games with more choices than most other writers and provide more nonlinear storylines. This is not exactly a good thing or a bad thing but just the style of writing I like to create.

The good

• Players experience more varied content/different story every time they play it.
• Players can try different character types and experience more specific stories.
• Stats have more opportunities to accumulate, which allows me to aim content at specific character types.

The bad

• More replays are needed to see all content. (Upgrades, such as +25 Skill Points, do help).
• Games seem short since most of the story is hidden in choices players make.
• Writing each part takes much longer.

My plan is to be a bit more linear with chapters going forward to give one central story with numerous side storylines.

In other news, I have commissioned an artist to make a detailed map of the Junkyard. I'll share previews as soon as they are ready. I'm considering other diagrams and illustrations to include in Part 3.

Vampire Fiction

I’m still plugging away at episode 5. The company who publishes the app has been working on stability fixes, so some of my delay is due to waiting for their fixes.

My Schedule 

On a personal note, I have been dealing with some health issues recently. I’ve had problems with kidney stones and will require surgery in September. I’ll post some updates soon on how that may affect Patreon for September.