Dilemma with 0.4.5

Hi everyone,

I want to communicate what's going on with 0.4.5, explain why it's been delayed, and ask how everyone would like to proceed moving forward.

Some of the early fans of The eWardrobe may recall me mentioning that the barn party on Friday night of the first week almost burned me out. I haven't gone into a ton of detail about it, but at the time I thought it would take me a day or so to write that scene. I anticipated that at the most it would take me two and a half days. Instead, it took me almost three weeks. I didn't appreciate how long it would take me to write scenes from multiple perspectives, with several activities, branches within the activities, side-characters, keeping track of variables and continuity, making choices feel real while also leading to a common outcome, etc.

Since then I've been a lot more careful about not biting off more than I can chew. But when I sped up the story timeline I moved one major event up a bit, and set it during the same week as the live-reading and the kickball tournament. I didn't realize how bad it was going to be until I finished Mon-Thurs of Week 5. Mon-Fri is over 30k words (the last three updates have been ~30k words each) and there's more to come. This update could easily hit 60k words, if I give every scene the level of quality I want to.

I wrote the story outline for The eWardrobe to be similar to a TV show season. Each week is an "episode" in my mind. Right now it's like the 5th episode has unintentionally bled past 40 minutes of run time to 60, with more still needed. 

It's the 27th of November and I'm not ready to release this update to the proof-readers and bug-testers, assuming the goal is to finish through Sunday. The way I see it, I have four options, but I'd like to hear what you all think first.

Option 1) Release the update when I've finished writing through Sunday.

The downside to this plan is that I will likely miss a November release date.

The upside is that the story will read as normal; cliffhangers and pacing will continue on as they should. My "vision" will remain in tact.

Option 2) Release what I have now, then release the rest (the weekend content) as soon as it's done.

The downside is that the pacing will be thrown off, and we'll be well into December before I start the next week (0.5.0).

The upside is you don't have to wait any longer than is necessary for content.

Option 3) Release updates on a set day of the month, regardless of their size/progress/pacing.

The downside is that pacing will be thrown off, and the story will flow strangely (cliffhangers with immediate payoff, interruptions in the middle of scenes, some paths being longer than others).

The upside is there shouldn't be more delays. On the __th of every month I sent whatever I got to proofreaders, and then on the __th everything is released. 

Option 4) Put in "placeholder" scenes on what isn't there in 0.4.5, and release through to Sunday.

The downside is that a scene or encounter may get hyped up, but when the page arrives it's a short "insert scene about XY here." Pacing will feel off, and major interactions may feel hurried or incomplete.

The upside is that I can focus onto the next week, not letting myself get significantly slowed down by any one scene. When the game is in beta (so the end has been published) I can go back and fill in the missing scenes. 

While it's important to me that the story pacing and events flow a certain way, it's equally important that supporters get their money's worth. I'd like to hear input from anyone who wants to offer their opinion. I could even put up a poll with those options outlined, and let the community vote.

I am deeply apologetic that I'm not ready on time. Writing isn't my full-time job (some day!) no matter how much I wish it was, but I still want to treat this with the same professionalism and work ethic that I bring to my 40 hour/week position. 

I apologize again, and I hope patrons' enthusiasm for this project won't wane over this.

-brick