Hello, fellow netrunners.

It’s been a bit since the release of Chapter 4, so I want to give a few brief proof-of-life updates.

Itch Re-Listing

After removing all options to pay / donate for String Zero, per Itch’s statements on the matter, the game was re-listed and is once again discoverable. This is not a huge issue for us, since we were never making any meaningful income from itch, but it does affect quite a lot of other developers.

There are a variety of ways to support us off itch, including patreon, subscribestar, ko-fi, direct donation, and on bandcamp. All funds are re-invested back into development, so every little bit does make a difference.

Upcoming Content

We have three batches of content in development, in order of expected release:

• “Bringing the Heat” Podcast, episode 3
  • In production; a variety of obstacles have slowed this down considerably, but it’s still very much alive and being worked on incrementally.
• Intermission 1
  • A bridge between Arc 1 and Arc 2. This will be about 1/4 or 1/3 the size of a normal chapter.
  • Written; presently in final editing and waiting for asset delivery.
• Chapter 5
  • The beginning of Arc 2.
  • Written; presently in initial editing stages. Quite a lot of new assets are required, so it will be a bit before this is ready, unfortunately.

Wrap-Up

As mentioned in other posts, we’re still working on a massive sprite overhaul. None of the String Zero staff artists work on this project full-time, so this is very much a considerable amount of work that is being done as life allows for it. This is also why I don’t like making time projections.

We’d rather wait and provide a polished experience over releasing a build with unfinished or problematic assets. Unfortunately, this does mean the project tends to lose interest over periods of time, and hasn’t quite made it to the number of eyeballs we’d like to see since the project doesn’t stay relevant or timely with more frequent builds.

With that in mind we do appreciate all the word-of-mouth sharing, fanart, and so on our fans provide. So much of FVN longevity is dependent upon the communities that surround them, and sadly, I have not had the time nor the energy to invest much intention in curating a community around this project.

So for those of you who continue to stick around,

Thank you.