2026 Schedule and beyond!

EDIT + UPDATE: Wow I'm really glad I included wiggle room in the schedule this year in case something came up, because something came up.

Ch59 will still be coming out on Tuesday for all patrons, but I have to make a last minute trip in the middle of April that unfortunately I won't be able to work during.

I don't want to rush the chapter out in half the time I usually get, so Ch6067 will be out in May for patrons, Ch6168 in June and Ch6269 in July.

Everything past that will be the same as scheduled.

Thank you for understanding.

Hey guys, hope you've enjoyed Chapter 58!

We're back in the full swing of things here at LRP, and you patrons will only have to wait a few more weeks for the next chapter of Out of Touch!

The reaction to Chapter 58 has been more than I could ever hope for. It was one of the most honest pieces of writing I've ever done that truly came from the soul, and to see how it resonated with so many brings a joy to my heart that is difficult to put into words.

One of the funniest comments I saw repeatedly were people worried that Chapter 58 was the end of the whole story!

I can see why, it does wrap up a lot of emotional story threads involving CJ that have been core parts of the game since the very first release.

But don't worry! There are years left of OoT coming to you all at the same pace as usual.

We're not done yet by a long shot.

So after seeing the schedule above, you might follow up that statement with a question:

"Story Anon, what the flying fuck are those chapter numbers?"

Great question! Look at the colors involved!

No but seriously, I do think this is a good time to talk about how I actually write Out of Touch, and more broadly the plans for the whole game.

When Out of Touch first started, I named each release a "chapter" because those releases came out weekly. That's exactly why the chapters at the beginning of the game through roughly chapter 20 are so short!

At some point, someone asked how many chapters the whole game would have and I glibly said 100. Not because that was any real estimation of how long the story would be (As each individual chapter can vary WILDLY in length, even today) but because it was a nice round number that roughly approximated an overall % completed.

But that was 6 years ago, and since then the writing organization style changed pretty dramatically to what you're all used to now: Story Arcs.

Starting with Victoria's arc, but really solidifying with Leah's arc, I write Out of Touch more like a series of light novels that each have their own rising action and climax rather than a bunch of individual chapters.

Each arc takes about a year to make (Plus some change, like with Ch58).

That's nothing new, I've been doing that since 2021, and it's how I've personally thought of the structure for OoT on the development side the entire time. That's why each arc has its own animated trailer starting with Leah's arc.

So instead of leaving anyone in suspense, I'd rather just put the plans for the rest of the story out in the open now that Ch58 is out:

There are going to be three more story arcs for Out of Touch.

• Amber and Gold (2026)

• Ultraviolet (2027)

• Samsara (2028)

And in addition to that, we do still fully intend to implement the long awaited pixel art RPG combat system that we've been working on in the back for a while. That was Snow's baby, but we're back on it.

So why all that to explain why the chapter numbers in the schedule are so fucky-wucky?

Because they don't matter.

They've always been arbitrary. Chapters 1 through 10 are about the same length as a single chapter in the 30s or 40s, while Chapter 22 is nearly as big as the entire game up until that point.

In retrospect, if there was one change I could make to the game, it would have been leaning more into Story Arcs as the official "unit" of OoT that would have their own chapters (Leah Arc: Chapter 1, etc)

But anyway, the point is this:

There's a lot of OoT left to come.

Three years of it, if everything goes perfectly!

I have a very clear vision of the road ahead to the finish line, and while I won't spoil anything, I will say that if you enjoyed my schizo nonsense in Chapter 58, you're going to get plenty more where that came from.

And the end of OoT isn't the end of Lightning Rooster Productions or Story Anon, in fact it's not even the end of this series. But you'll have to please look forward to it, for now.

If you have any questions at all about the schedule or about the game in general, leave them in the comments below (or DM me here or on Discord) and I'll gladly answer them.

The best is yet to come, my boys.

Sincerely,

Story Anon