Games by JimD Newsletter – Safe Haven, Other Projects (Patreon)

Welcome to my 65th newsletter! This has been another productive month, and I am already close to my writing goal for Safe Haven as of the time of this newsletter, written on February 20. Below, I will discuss my timeline for completing this part and what goes into producing a game like this. My writing goal has been to increase my daily word count, though that has yet to happen this year. I will explain more about this in the ZE:SH section.

I also want to talk about my other projects, which currently consist of short stories for StoryLoom and a long-term project, Deadbury Academy. These are lower on my priority list but still, take up some of my time.

Let's get started.

Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 4

Part 4 is currently at 260,000 words, over 20,000 more this month. I'm not done writing yet, so I could easily make that 25,000 before the next closed beta release on February 25. This month, I have spent most of my time on scenes with romantic options and conversations at the start of Chapter 14. It's a lot to write because of all the characters. Next month, I will finish the romantic interactions and continue with the Brody and Madison mission.

After I finished Part 3, I planned to write 30,000 words per month for Safe Haven each month. I have been averaging over 20,000 words per month since then. My work each month is broken up into numerous categories, and I will provide complete transparency. You'll also see what goes into producing a game for someone who writes continuing stories.

Interestingly, the hours per month work out to be 100 hours even per month. Of course, these hours are the average numbers, and I work more or fewer hours in some months.

As you can see, I spend most of my time on Safe Haven, while writing other stories and content comes in a distant second. You may be surprised that marketing and community engagement through social media, emails, and Discord take 2-3 hours per week. Patreon takes up more and more time. I spend roughly 3 hours per week on rewards and content.

Realize I am working a traditional job and writing and coding my games. I work a standard 9-5 job (though I am salaried and often work more than 40 hours weekly). If you are ever thinking of holding down a job while writing interactive fiction, consider that I'm working roughly 250 hours per month across my jobs. My saving grace is that I love writing and interacting with my followers. It doesn't feel like a job (well, it does 20% of the time), and that's part of what keeps me going.

I'm also making more money writing than I ever did. I have written for Choice of Games and Hosted Games for over 10 years and have reasonably successful games. Some other games have eclipsed ZE:SH in the past few years, but it remains in the top five sold games. Because I always choose to take royalties and not fixed payouts as advances, I have had the fortune of earning money for all of the games I've produced. Even now, the original Zombie Exodus and A Wise Use of Time generate me monthly royalties.

If you would like me to go into greater detail about my finances, please let me know, and I would be happy to share them with you.

Stories from the Outbreak

Choice of Games released on February 2, 2023. I thought the sale price was going to be $0.99, but Hosted Games set in as $1.99 and normally $2.99. Since Hosted Games has been raising prices for all games, these stories started out as a higher rate than I had requested. For those of you who have purchased the stories, thank you for your support, and I hope you are enjoying them. Please let me know if you would like to see more of this kind of content within the app.

StoryLoom Projects

When I signed up with StoryLoom in December 2022, I had agreed to write 3,000-4,000 words per chapter and no more than 3 chapters per month. Since this style of game is much more linear than my other choice games, that amount of writing seemed trivial at the time. StoryLoom originally had a bonus program that pushed me to write more. Their bonuses were highly favorable to the writer, and have since ended that program. It needed to be more sustainable for them to pay such bonuses. Writers like me with an established following were maximizing our bonuses.

Under the new payment schedule, which continues until March, I will be paid a good amount per chapter. That means I will produce the maximum of 5 chapters per month. They have dramatically cut bonuses as they work out the details of their new program.

What does this all mean for you? I continue to write Your Trial and will add 2 new chapters this month. I am also creating a new game and will produce 3 chapters this month. That game will release most likely in early March, and I will notify everyone when it comes out. It will be an urban fantasy game, and I believe everyone will like it.

That's all for this month. Next month I should have an update on Deadbury Academy.