Terminal Quickies: CoC - Sneak Peek #4 + Jailbreak Update (Patreon)

Hello everyone, 

It's labeled as a "Sneak Peek" post, because that's what it technically is, but I'm sharing it with all tiers as intended. 

See HERE for the other 2 commissioned images from popsiclebunny (go help her out by ordering a commission, she does a lot of different art. But be nice!) that make up the 3rd part of the Terminal Quickies: A Case of Conception story. 

But Jim, where IS part 3 of the story!?

Would you believe me if I told you I'm not done writing it yet? Of course you would... 

To be fair, something I couldn't get out of came up and ended up taking a lot more of my time over the last two days than I initially thought it would.  So I'm still about a day or two behind on the writing. What I've decided to do is compromise by posting the new images (the good bits) on time, and then I'll update this post with the story a couple days later when it's done. And I'll send the link out to the PDF containing the story & images for all March Patrons via DM too so that those who canceled for April will still get what they were promised for March. You know the drill.

That's the best I can do right now so hopefully that's a reasonable solution for most. 

As you can see, that 3rd image attached to this post if of a new scene, That'll actually be the illustration accompanying Part 4 which is bridging the gap to the next major scene (Part 5) where the story will introduce Nabe: Lara's husband (who she is searching for when we meet her in the game). Part 4 of of the story will also be posted with Part 3. Another reason why it's taking a bit longer. That and I'm doing a lot of groundwork laying for the climax of the game's story in ACT 2, but you likely won't realize it when reading...

What's going on with the Jailbreak story!?

At the risk of airing too much dirty laundry, I'll try to keep this brief. The artist for the Jailbreak art released thus far, NGTV, has basically stopped working on the project. The last art update I received from him since September of 2021 was this sketch for the 5th image back in November:

Since then, I have received 2 other messages from him, apologizing for not responding. He seems to imply that he wishes to continue working on the project but then will not say anything for months at a time, despite clearly still being active on his various platforms. 

I have nothing against his art (it's fantastic and fits the TD style very well) and I don't even mind the delays (there have already been many), but a complete breakdown in communication without reason given is really not something I can work with. Especially since this is content for you all, and not some private commission for myself only.

It wouldn't really be as big of an issue if I hadn't paid for several more images up front some time ago. Anyway, I suppose that's on me. The last message from him was at the end of February where he said he was going to continue work on it, but nothing since then 1 month later. 

tldr; I wouldn't hold my breath for more art from NGTV. I'm happy to continue working with him in the future, but not if things show no sign of changing. Things were already bad prior to September as it was.  

So, what does this mean for Jailbreak? Well, clearly a new artist needed to take over. I'm never a particularly large fan of that though. My OCD has a heavy preference for continuity with these things. It didn't feel right to me, and the artist I reached out to, to simply continue where NGTV had left off. So instead, we're coming at it from a different angle:

That's right, we're rebooting the Jailbreak story into a comic! The artist taking on the project is the amazing MeinFischer who I think will do the characters justice :) 

Right now the plan is for 16 pages + a cover for the whole story. The 1st page is complete, which is where this teaser panel comes from, but we're aiming to release the first 4 or so pages at once so that we can more quickly cover lost ground before the month-month wait for future pages sets in. 

So that's the plan for Jailbreak moving forward. Perhaps comics were the smarter move that stories to begin with. I like writing a lot of words, but I suspect far less people enjoy actually reading them. So a comic is probably a more popular compromise for these additional stories I'd like to tell in the TD world. And if by some chance, NGTV gets things sorted out on his end (whatever is going on) then you'll hopefully still see the rest of the original art from him that I already paid for... 

I just wanted to share with you all that info so you were no longer in the dark. It might still be a couple of months until we start posting the Jailbreak comic pages on the regular, so I appreciate your continued patience in advance. But things are looking up for both Terminal Quickies projects finally. (Assuming I keep up on the writing end and don't get too distracted from the game... speaking of, I better go finish my writing for Lara then get back to work!)

Thank you all for your support this month. Still aiming for that ALPHA #2 on April 30. We'll see how much I can squeeze into that...

~Jim