@hahaha01357 thanks for the offer to help. I will take you up on the offer as the development progresses.
I really enjoy skill-based games and RPGs in general, so I went with more than less. Professions will matter less in the game than skills, so I feel I can swing it. In terms of organizing the stat screen. Should I categorize by attribute (ie. intelligence-based, dexterity-based), or something else?
I think that would make sense. It would make it a lot easier for players to see how they should improve their skills or attributes.
@poison_mara Most of these backgrounds are pretty linear since they are mostly designed to give you stats without having a major impact on the rest of the narrative. Like, in the con artist path everyone dies no matter what, in the job interview path everyone dies no matter what, in the teenager path everyone dies no matter what, in the single parent path no one dies no matter what, etc. This is basically the character creation screen. I mean, Iād love those to be less linear if for no other reason than to give a more accurate picture of what the actual game will be like, but I can see why @JimD wouldnāt find it worth the trouble when theyāre relatively inconsequential in the long run.
@Shoelip for the most part, the profession-specific backgrounds are linear and mostly stat building, but I may have misrepresented the impact. Some characters will recur, and depending on how you interacted with them, they may be friendly. For example, you will meet the Milfords (a keystone family of the area). There are various ways to interact with them depending on profession and choices made in chapter 1. But the vast majority of chapter 1ās impact is on stats.
@adjppm1227 should be four hours. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hey Jimd. I love your games so much and I am really looking forward for safe haven. Though I have a question. I love searching into your game files to actually edit a few things. For example when I want to have my strength to 50. I edit it. You could call it cheating. But I am always playing the game once without ācheatingā to not ruin the experience. Though now I have replayed it like 10 times 
and I have been able to edit some scripts into to extension. I just go to google extension on .Well you know. And I edit the scripts. Though I want to be able to edit the save files. Cause in the non bought version. I could edit the save file in the database. But in the bough version I canāt find it. I was just able to find a log file and some others stuffs. Though I think they are encrypted. I am not sure. Please understand that I love your games and itās just for trying new stuff that I am doing this. Not for cheating or ruining my experience.
If we choose to have the ādependent childā weakness are we going to be able to choose how we prepare them for the apocalypse? As in, we could try our best to shelter them from zombies and raiders or we can teach them how to use a gun and kill zombies?
Looking forward to see how this turns out. The first Zombie Exodus was amazing, and so far this is looking great!
@JimD You could add the illusion of a bit less linearity to the Engineer/Laborer job interview path if you allowed the player to save the NPCs in it by getting them to take the stairs with them. After all, Chandra was the one who suggested it. I mean, you can already save a few people in various paths, so why not a few more? Thereās nothing to say they have to show up again later.
Itās justā¦ in the previous game you started out and right away your choices mattered. In this one you start out and many of the paths seem to indicate the you choices are meaningless and everything will keep going to same way no matter what you choose, and what your stats. At least thatās the impression I get from the Con Artist, Teen, Engineer, and Laborer. If I didnāt know your previous work Iād be perfectly reasonable in assuming that this was how the rest of the game was going to go.
Will it have five pats like the other zombie exodus.
@JimD I figured you were thinking something like that. I guess itās mainly a personal preference, but I figure that what makes these games/stories most special is the reactiveness of the stories to player choices. In mainstream games, branching stories are much harder to implement due to needing the budget for all those graphics and sounds. They also tend to feel like they need to draw out the value of those assets by having gameplay that has no real meaningful connection to the story, like most of the combat in games.
It may just be me, but I personally feel that in character choices are far more effective means of creating an emotional connection to the world and characters than out of character choices. Choosing where you start the game is definitely great, but itās a meta game choice. If youāre trying to immerse yourself in the story, and not just thinking of it as a game, then as far as youāre concerned that doesnāt actually count as a choice. Thatās why I feel like even though being able to choose where you start is great, itās not so great if it comes at the expense of in character reactivity.
Off Topic: You know, now that I think about it, itād be really interesting to have a game where the player had lots of choices that affected the game, but they were all metagame choices, so the main character feels as if theyāre trapped by fate, but the player actually realizes that everything thatās happening is due to their choices.
@Shoelip well, the majority of games published under CoG and HG labels have started with the template of 6-10 choices to build character. Safe Haven does the same but stretches out the start to a dozen or so choices with a prologue tailored to class. All of the choices set numeric stats or meta game variables, like most games.
All that being said, itās funny how a number of people give your feedback (independent of seeing your feedback). So my proposed fixes are:
Any other specific suggestions to fix Safe Havenās linearity?
Jim maybe adds an option to be tired, angry or depressed with your origin. Imagine a science student, that wants to change his life before the outbreak. An engineer just fired a con that feel guilty and want to do a last scam and change his life. A scientific that want to steal data from his lab boss and discover the secret lab.
I think with that option you add some change without change to much the text.
take it easy man. this story seems massive and I wouldnāt want you to overwhelm yourself 
your such a great writer and iād hate to see this story die.
I honestly donāt get this apparent linearity, the prologues seem to be very variable and show your characterās background perfectly, and the challenges and dependent options are a nice touch. If the main story retains that sense of flexibility and some decent characters to intereact with, you will have done your job just fine.
@Zolo999 hey remember even if something happens to this. Good stories donāt die, they merely are missing in action
@derekmetaltron Just think about it this way. What if there werenāt all these different career paths to choose from and it was just one starting point? Thatās the real issue Iām found with the game. Some of these really have no consequential choices. The Teen will always be forced to watch helplessly as everyone at the party dies, then escape with his friend only for him to die shortly after. The Con Artist can run away earlier, but thereās no way to affect the fate of either of the two women in that path. Obviously itās not every intro, but some have a serious lack of feedback for your choices.
This beta is pretty awesomeā¦ when will the final product be released for purchase?
@Harian if I could hazard a guess maybe early to late 2016 it could be pushed back to 2017 depending on his position on whether or not itās ready. But again Iām not Jim so it could take longer or shorter than that. But I have a gut feeling itāll come out sometime around next Halloween.
also I agree whole heartedly about how great the demo was. I started getting paranoid though once it got to the animal name choices I was like " wow Iāve been able to create me so far. Waitā¦ what?" *sees the first name for my dog is the name of my dog in real life* āuhm I think I may be being followed.ā
I bought it with chrome. So in my extensions files there is zombie exodus with all the documents in it. The game files. Though I can not find the save file. Do you know where it saves it ?
@poison_mara I like your ideas, and it wouldnāt take much to add the text. Thanks for the suggestion.
@zolo999 thanks for the encouragement!
@derekmetaltron my plan is to have all customizations affect the story past the prologue, but I can see where others would like to see more chances to do something longer lasting in the prologues. But I am glad someone understood the purpose of it.
@Shoelip I agree with most of your feedback, but disagree when you say the prologues (renamed from ābackground sceneā) have no consequential choices. All prologues have significant impact on morality stats, which alter the story and switch options going forward. Iād say until now, options do not exist to affect many NPCs in the prologues.
@Harian Iād say @Razgriz made a fair guess at Halloween 2015, just due to work on my other game. I am progressing *now* at a rate of 1 chapter per 5-6 weeks with 10 more chapters planned.
@Razgriz Look behind you. *waves*
@Demonarke Saves go to the Choice of Games server to my knowledge.