Recent Additions and What Still Lies Ahead for 2024

After reviewing our stated plans for 2023, one can see we finished about half of them. Most importantly, we finished the GameLit/LitRPG luminal isekai series, Head Hoppers, in its entirety. That was a major accomplishment.

Our 2023 releases also included a puzzle book and a game book, while in the first half of 2024 we’ve released the second edition of Undone, the second volume of Head Hoppers. We’ve updated the cover art for books one and two of the Head Hoppers series to bring them into the same style as the cover art for books three through five.

Undone has seen significant content changes, with eight new GameLit/LitRPG chapters and a reduction of other, non-GameLit material. The story of Undone is now told from the viewpoint of a game world avatar rather than his player. This was done in response to reader feedback, which was very much appreciated. Note that although the cover art for The Longest Survivor, book one of the series, has changed, the content of the first volume remains unchanged.

Our latest puzzle book is 200 Word Clue Puzzles. Each puzzle in the book presents clues about an unspecified five-letter word with no repeated letters, and it’s up to you to put the clues together to uncover the mystery word. For instance, you might be told that E is the 1st, 2nd, or 5th letter; S is the 1st, 2nd, or 4th letter; and B is the 1st, 4th, or 5th letter. Can you think of a five-letter word with no repeated letters that fits those clues? Find the answers to that puzzle and 200 more in the book. Available in paperback on Amazon and in PDF format on DriveThruFiction.

Our latest game book is Voodoo, Virus & Bad Eggs and Other Trick-Capturing Card Games. If you’re a fan of the card game Spades but also like changing things up, you’re in for a treat. Voodoo, Virus & Bad Eggs contains variant rules for a dozen trick-capturing card games. Among the variant rules, you’ll find the ability to change the bids of other players, reasons to avoid taking certain cards or to play cards face-down, and the ability to change the rules mid-game. Because many of these games are based on Spades, a condensed version of the rules for Spades is included for those unfamiliar with the game.

What Still Lies Ahead for 2024

While we spent a good amount of time on each of the projects we had planned for 2023, we didn’t finish them all, mainly because the work that my co-creators can do to this point on planned projects has been done, and my expertise is needed to move the projects forward. My priority has been to finish the second edition of Undone, which required a great deal more effort than I’d hoped. I’m glad to finally be finished with it. Yet now it’s on me to determine where to put my time next.

Looking back at what was planned last year, there was a short novel-in-progress tentatively titled Just Another Day of the Apocalypse. Print, Kindle, and epub novels, even short ones, are low priority at Eposic in 2024. Novels require a ton of effort, and time is such a limiting factor for me. This project has been shelved for now.

Some effort was made in 2023 on a Max Gumdrop digital country album. Dave Eidson has written all the melody lines and lyrics for the songs for the album, so that’s not the hold-up. Instrumental accompaniment still needs to be done, and while Max made an attempt at this, she readily admits she’s not the greatest when it comes to creating country beats. I’ve not tried it yet myself. I hadn’t planned to do all the work on this project that Max had intended to do, so for now the project is shelved from my perspective. If Max finds a way to proceed with it herself, maybe the project will still happen. Time will tell.

Another project mentioned in last year’s plans was an interactive fiction, possibly written as a Flutter app for release on the Microsoft App Store and/or Google Play. Since then, I’ve discovered Ren’Py, visual novels, and itch.io. Visual novels are a form of text-based interactive fiction that include images and sometimes audio. Ren’Py is a tool primarily for creating visual novels. The itch.io site provides a means of distributing visual novels and other digital products created by indie developers. Steam is another possible avenue for distributing visual novels, but has more stringent requirements than itch.io. The Microsoft App Store and Google Play might still be viable distribution outlets. Other distribution channels are possible, too.

So, I’m ditching any plans to create Flutter game apps in favor of using Ren’Py. I’ve already developed three chapters of a visual novel tentatively titled Fell Under a Dream. The scope of this visual novel has become quite expansive. I might be better served to spend some time on a visual novel project with smaller demands, so as to more expediently test the entire process of developing, producing, distributing, and marketing a visual novel. Regardless of what I decide in this regard, I’m most interested in a visual novel project now.

I mentioned a few other projects in my previous post about plans for last year. While they all remain possible, they’re lowest priority in my mind as I write this. Priorities can change when one takes all involved variables (time requirements, fan feedback, developer interests) into consideration. For now, my focus will be on a first visual novel. I’d like for both a new puzzle book and a new game book to come to life during 2024, and will think about some that won’t take a lot of time to produce. Maybe a digital country album from Max Gumdrop will see the light of day this year, if Max can figure out the country beats, assuming she’s willing to look into it further.

All in all, the plan is not to over-plan like we did last year. If there’s a product you’d especially like to see from us or if you have any constructive feedback, positive or negative, we’d love to hear from you. Meanwhile, you can sign up below to be notified when we post more news or announcements.