Steam/Itch Release Details (Early Access)

Leaving DNA will release on Steam and Itch as an early access game on March 7, 2024.  The release will include Episodes One, Two, and Three, and buying the game in early access means you own all future episodes of the game--there will be eight episodes total and this game will not be released in seasons.  The game will cost $12, although it will be on sale when it drops.

***All supporters--past, present, or future--who have contributed at least $12 total will be entitled to a key which gives them a copy of the game on either platform of their choice.  Please message me to request the key and let me know if you want Steam or Itch.  You can message me now or anytime in the future, even after you're not a supporter anymore, to request a key if you have contributed at least $12.***

If you are not a supporter but are planning to buy the game on Steam, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review!  The reviews on Steam are critically important to the Steam algorithm which decides to show the game to more players in the Steam store.  And so far the Steam algorithm has not favored Leaving DNA, so I'm really going to be counting on getting good reviews.  (If you are a supporter accessing the Steam version via a key, your review will not count towards the algorithm but it will still help when potential buyers are checking out the store page!)

If you've been following Leaving DNA but haven't wishlisted the game yet, you can help me out by doing that now! 

I am also announcing that there will only be four more releases of Leaving DNA.  Episode Three will release by itself, Episode Four will release by itself, and Episode Five will release by itself.  Then I will work on Episodes Six, Seven, and Eight simultaneously, and I will wait until all three episodes are complete before releasing all of them--maybe a week apart from each other.  I expect Episodes Six through Eight to be smaller than Episodes One through Three, so this isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but it will definitely require some patience from my supporters.

Financially, this is a probably not a good idea.  I get a fresh promotional round each time I release on Steam and I will have supporters who get impatient with the increased development time.  But my priority has always been to produce the best game I can and tell the story in the most impactful way.  There is a tremendous amount of story momentum created by Episode Six, and if I follow it up with another long development period, that momentum will be lost and what happens in Episodes Seven and Eight won't have as much impact.  Conversely, while there is a really good cliffhanger at the end of Episode Five, it's the kind of cliffhanger that you'll be okay waiting a bit longer to see what happens next.

This has also led to another decision, and that is to limit the bonus Dream Scenes to only Episodes Two, Three, Four, and Five.  I should have realized this before, but trust me when I say that after you play Episode Six and Seven you aren't going to be interested in jumping to a meaningless sex scene.  Also due to the fact that I will be working on three episodes at once adding three bonus scenes will just add too much to the development time.  So that means that in addition to Erin and Gina you'll get to choose bonus scenes for two more of the non-LI's.  I do however, have one special bonus scene planned for the completion of the game....

Episode One will continue to be available as a free demo on any platform.  I've previously released Episode Two for free, but my links on Patreon, SubscribeStar, and Itch are being replaced with just Episode One.  I think that if someone doesn't like the game by the time they finish the two hours of content in Episode One then Leaving DNA is not for them.

Thank you to all of my supporters and I appreciate having all of you as fans.

--Monk