Games by JimD Newsletter – Game Updates

I can’t believe how time is flying. It’s already been 2 ½ months since Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4 came out. Many new players have joined the community, and the number of people downloading the game has been consistent. Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

It’s been another busy month with both of my games in development. I have also added an additional original story to Patreon. I have no plans to slow down production of new content.

In this newsletter, I will review my development plans, as I do every month. Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

The free update is now at 33,000 words, and I have extended it by 6,000 words so far this month. I still plan to add more content before I release the next Patreon update on May 25. I’m also planning on doing a public update by the end of this month.

The Patreon update will include a lot of new content related to the age customization. I have started going through all the prologues to account for age. For example, if you are a college student, you can choose to be college age, young adult, or adult. It didn’t make sense to me that a young adult or adult is trying to get their first apartment. Instead, I added a new path that changes the prologue so that you are renting a condo. It will still play out in a similar way as the original college student prologue, but will now factor in your age.

I have also made other adjustments to the prologue chapter, but it’s a very time-consuming process. It requires going through almost all the code to find sections that require updating. I’m hoping to finish by the Patreon update but will have to continue with the prologue and chapter 1 next month.

After finishing the updates related to the age customization, I will continue the teenager storyline. That will take place in Part 4. After that, I will run a poll on Patreon to see what you would like me to update next.

I have been steadily commissioning new artwork every 1-2 months. Right now, Regina is working on Fern and her wolf companion. Do you enjoy artwork in Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven? Should I keep going with more characters, or do you think there are enough characters already?

Zombie Exodus: Stronghold

Stronghold is up to 317,000 words, 21,000 more than last month. Chapter 10 has been more complex than I acted, as the MC explores an apartment building in Zone 2. They have been separated from the rest of the group, and the apartment building has been overrun by the infected. The MC can search through numerous parts of the building, and I’m trying to give as much agency to the main character with a variety of choices and paths to take. There is no right or wrong way, and I’m trying to make it as immersive as possible.

This chapter allows you to earn extra skill points depending on how much extra exploration you would like to do. For example, you are invited into an apartment in the back hallway and potentially earn extra skill points, or you can choose to bypass it. Do you like this style of gameplay, or would you rather not tie rewards to exploration?

Stronghold development is taking longer than I expected, but I’m also adding so much more content than what was on the previous platform. I’m about two-thirds of the way through developing the game and can’t wait to show you the final product.