Day 18 + Steam + Itch news

Greetings and salutations. There's a lot of news in this post... and thus, a lot of writing. I'm just keeping everyone updated on what's going on.

First, I appreciate the increased support from the release of Day 17. I hope you enjoyed the Day. I particularly enjoyed putting together Ishani's questionnaire.

Day 18 is coming along nicely. My hope (and not my guarantee) is that I get it out at the end of July. Could it be within the first week-ish of August? Possibly. There is a ton of content in Day 18... it's a lot. For me personally, I think Day 18 is my favorite so far.

Here's the news on the Steam release:

In roughly five days' time, I will have submitted and uploaded the build that will be used in the Steam release. It will then be reviewed by their review team. How long that will take is anyone's guess. Afterwards, I will submit the game to a few curators. Here's hoping they like it. 

My current estimate is that the Steam release will happen in late July. I know, I know. Me and estimates, right? Here's why it's a good estimate: there's a visual novel sale starting on August 7th, and I would very much like to have my game available to be purchased during that sale.

Sometime in the next week or so, I will upload the Steam build version here on Patreon. There are numerous improvements that have been made, I'll list just a few below.

Music.
Nearly every image in D1-D8 has been either redone or improved.
Writing in D1-D8 has been improved, both for the laptop sessions and the days themselves. It is more consistent and fitting, particularly for a few characters.
Escape room is easier to understand, complete, and enjoy.

With that said, beyond the music, I wouldn't call the experience vastly different. If I were to recommend a fresh playthrough of the game at any point, it would be when I release Days 19-20. Why then? Who knows?

I've said this before, but a successful Steam release would be incredibly beneficial for this game and all future ones that I make. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to exclusively work on these things. At the very least, faster updates would be a guarantee.

For the Itch news — Sometime in July, I will release Stranded in Space Days 1-16 for free. No longer am I uploading any paid versions to the website. It will sit at Days 1-16 for the foreseeable future, receiving no updates or additional days.

I'm probably forgetting some Steam release information, but this is where I'll end the post for now.

Again, I appreciate the increased support for the game. Day 18 is gonna be a good one. I'll post more about its progress before June ends.