Hello, everyone! For my American friends, I'm hope you're enjoying the new dystopian lifestyle as much as I am. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), my place of work is considered an essential business, so I've still got money coming in, and school has completely switched to being online, so I still get to complete my spring classes. In other words, not a whole lot's changed for me, meaning not a whole lot's changed regarding Forge:Re's development. I'm not putting it on hiatus or anything. I'm still plowing ahead as much as I'm able.

There are a few things I'd like to address in this update. Firstly, to give you a general idea of where I'm at progress-wise, I should (ideally) have Chapter Four's daily life edited within a week's time. I gotta be honest, this chapter's been kicking my butt. While some scenes are okay, some of them are really poorly written, and it's just been melting my brain lately. Thankfully, I'm not the only one doing QA work here, so hopefully my QA people can pick up the slack for me. Speaking of which...

Unfortunately, I was not (or am not) able to get Chapter Three out to those in early access by the end of March. Long story short, only the daily life of Chapter Three has been looked over by my QA person so far. I was really not happy about this and briefly considered replacing them, but I think we've come to a manner of compromise. As you may recall from my last progress report, I was planning on bringing a good friend of mine on to help with the QA work. Well, he's now on board, and he's very fast at what he does. Initially, I had him get a head start on looking over Chapter Four's daily life, but I've since transferred him to Chapter Three. In other words, I now have two people looking at Chapter Three. On top of that, I've issued a deadline of April 20th or thereabouts to them. Assuming the deadlines are met, I'll be able to put the finishing touches on Chapter Three and get it out to those in early access by the end of April.

Beyond that, I feel there's a correction I need to make regarding something I've said multiple times in the past. Previously, I said the Prologue and Chapter One will release the day Chapter Five is made available to those in early access, and this may not be the case. Just today, I asked my QA people if they would give the entire script a quick read-through once every chapter is edited. Unlike the in-depth editing we're doing now, this would be a final, cursory pass meant to identify and deal with any lingering issues in the game's script. As such, it shouldn't take long. Whereas the editing work we've been doing now will have taken over a year by the time it's done, a cursory pass of each chapter should take no longer than few days apiece. Once I've made the final adjustments to the Prologue and Chapter One, they will be publicly released.

To put it in simpler terms, the Prologue and Chapter One will most likely release a few days after Chapter Five is made available to those in early access. This is something I want to clear up sooner than later, because I know it'll bite me in the butt if I don't do it now.

Regardless of how 'good' or 'polished' Forge:Re's script is when it comes time to release, I hope those who read it appreciate all the time, blood, sweat, and tears I've poured into this project. I've said time and again that I'll finish making this game even if it kills me, and some days it really does feel like it's killing me. In fact, I'd say it feels that way more often than not nowadays. I'm putting everything I have into this, and I just hope it shows. Because at the end of the day, I don't want this to be just another fangan. I want this to be one of the best ones out there.

I feel like I'm going to just keep ranting and raving if I don't end this there, so I will see you all next month with yet another progress report! I should be into Chapter Four's trial by that time, so wish me luck, and I'll see you then!