In March, I focused on writing the novel-length Outsider story and preparing for its first in-person presentation, which was scheduled as part of my panel at the Atlanta Sci-Fi & Fantasy Expo, held on March 15–16 in Atlanta. The writing went well, but the Expo was a major disappointment and a near-complete waste of my precious time.

I diligently prepared an 80-slide presentation about “leaving Corporate America to build a video game”. I designed it as a fast-paced, 40-minute talk with short, colorful, and funny slides discussing my departure from the corporate world, the gaming market, and Outsider itself. I was excited for the opportunity to meet local folks, connect with other creators, and explore the Expo, which was held at Northlake Mall, just 15-20 minutes from downtown Atlanta.

Unfortunately, the venue lacked the infrastructure I had expected. It was held in a “dead mall” - interesting and exotic in a way, but also imposing significant limitations on what the Expo could offer. Panels were held in vacant retail spaces, still showing remnants of their previous tenants. The organizers assigned me to an old shoe store with empty racks on the walls. While the strange ambiance had a certain charm, the lighting was too bright, the screen surface was too rough and patterned, and the projector was too dim to overcome the room’s shortcomings. I simply had no way to present my slides and canceled the panel on the spot.

It was nice chatting with the few attendees there, but overall, it wasn’t worth the effort. Many experienced solo developers have talked about the poor cost-benefit of conferences, and my adventure only reinforced that view.

Despite wasting 10–15 hours on the panel prep, the month was nonetheless extremely productive and focused almost entirely on writing. I could hardly call myself a game developer during this time - I was a full-time novelist. I encountered the same challenges professional writers face: mental exhaustion after just a few hours of work, dissatisfaction with early drafts, and the isolation that comes from needing a quiet environment to write effectively. I’m happy to report that I’ve completed about 35–40% of the game’s writing as of yesterday. I finalized a choice-free draft of Chapters 5 through 8 and completed third-revision drafts of Chapters 9 through 13 out of a planned 20 chapters. It’s good progress, though most of the writing work still lies ahead.

But March’s writing wasn’t all good news. While the Demo’s writing was heavily inspired by Outsider’s 2015 YouTube release, most of this month’s content involved material I had left out of that version. Without the polished 2015 script to guide me, the writing proved far more difficult than I anticipated. Even with Nando’s records, shaping a cohesive and fluent story from scattered snippets is like trying to write a novel from dictionary entries. The initial drafts were challenging, and revisions were even tougher. Chapter 7 required two rewrites, and Chapter 9 is now on its fourth - with no end in sight. My focus (and liberal caffeine microdosing!) helped me stay on task and offset some of that difficulty, but I still want to stick to the conservative November release date.

In April, I’ll continue focusing on writing. My goals are to complete a first draft of all chapters up to 18, finish revisions of Chapters 9 through 13, and add choices to Chapters 5 through 8. I won’t be releasing an updated playtest by the end of April; however, if I achieve these goals, I’ll have surpassed the midpoint of the story! Let’s hope I can get there!