Hello! I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front lately, but I wanted to give everyone a quick update on the game. In short, things are going very well and you won’t have to wait much longer to play The Novelist.

But before getting into the state of the project, I should mention that I’ll be showing the game this Wednesday at the Good Game Club event. It’s being put on by the same folks who ran Indie Press Day back in May, and this time it’s open to the general public as well, so stop by if you’re in the area!

Now, back to the game. I recently sent out a content-complete beta build to my friends and family playtest group. About 25 new people were added to the group in this round of testing, so for the first time in a while I’m getting fresh impressions from new players, which has been really exciting and valuable. The response from players has been really positive; it’s a night and day difference from the alpha build back in August, and I’m glad I made the tough decision to delay the game.

The game is in the home stretch. I’ve picked a release date, and I just sanity-checked the schedule with my wife; she runs operations at a tech company and was a game producer before that, so she knows her stuff when it comes to schedules. I have a list of tasks I must complete to finish the game, I have a release candidate build schedule, I have a press plan, and I’m working on finishing touches like putting together the preorder bonus soundtrack, setting up my Steam store page, and so on.

Now, I’m not ready to announce the release date quite yet. After missing the original summer window I want to be 100% sure that I’m going to make my date before I announce it. I need to get more people banging on the game and finding bugs, but barring unforeseen disasters I feel really good about getting the game done on time.

So that’s the state of the state. I’m diving into the hardcore final push, where I plow through my task list as fast as I can, respond to any bugs that testers find, and get this thing DONE! Thanks, as always, to everyone who’s sent a kind word or expressed support. I’m excited that the finish line is in sight. Stay tuned for more updates in the next few weeks!