This past week was a bit frustrating. Writers block reared its ugly head, which was especially troublesome since I had dozens of scenes to write. Thankfully, I did get rough drafts of 15 scenes finished. This is another big release, though I won't have an idea of whether it is bigger than Chapter 5 until I finish writing the remaining scenes. A lot of the scenes, while excellent in terms of advancing the story, are on the shorter side, so far. As always, the number of scenes doesn't translate directly to chapter length and play time.

If you are enjoying the game, please spread the word on Discord, Reddit, or wherever else you might happen to discuss this type of game. As I mentioned in my last post, it is tough to get the word out about these games as you can't really publicize them many places. Word of mouth is, by far, the best way to get folks looking at the game. One other quick note on that. I've decided to make To Be A King Chapter 4 available for free. Chapter 5 is nearly double the content, but Chapter 4 will give anyone trying out the game a better idea of what to expect. Chapter 5 is a Patreon exclusive, at least until a bit after the release of Chapter 6 here in a few months.

I have seen a few questions about how many chapters To Be A King will end up with once it is complete. I have no idea. That's my honest answer. I have a rough outline for the entire game, with notes on important things that need to happen in each release. But every time I sit down to write, the game takes on a life of its own, and I have to make adjustments (and often additions). At this stage, I doubt we will be at the halfway point for the game once Chapter 6 releases, but I am not going to drag the story out just to hit an arbitrary number. If I get to the point where the story is ready to be wrapped up, I'll finish it up then.

While I anticipate that To Be A King has several more months, if not years, of development ahead, I have started constructing the story for my next game. I will echo the great and glorious Belle here: my next story will be very different from To Be A King. Since we are a long way off from that game having its first release, things can always change. But that is the current plan. I'm not investing much time yet in the next game - To Be A King has my focus. But it is nice as a change of pace to work on the new game without any pressure.

That's all from me this week. We aren't far away from having some new preview renders to show, but it may be a few more dev updates before I have that. WAY too soon for any ETA, of course, but my goal is 3-4 months between releases. One day someone will invent a system where I can dump my ideas for the game into the computer and have renders and a script come out fully formed. Come on, Elon Musk! Make it happen!