https://www.aweber.com/z/r/?ThisIsATestEmail

It's Time to Enter Another World!

I am so painfully excited my friends! I've been working on this game for almost five months now with the help of about 20 intrepid alpha-testers, and I am thrilled to be able to finally share the game with a wider audience!

What to Expect from a Beta/Early Access Release

Having gushed about the game, I have to talk now about expectations. A beta is not a final release! There will be bugs, unfinished features, and items still in progress. The core gameplay works, but you might run into issues my alpha testers haven't found yet; there were only a double handful of my 'stone-polishers', and they couldn't be everywhere at once. It's time for more data, which is where hopefully you all enter in. Your feedback will substantially help me improve the game!

I'll still be working on the game's innards while you're playing, and that means sometimes it will be unstable. I'm going to try to keep that to only twice a week as I move down my checklists and collect and respond to your feedback. You'll see a red banner in the header if I'm messing with something. Your data remains safe: I do daily backups and I always have a backup of whatever I'm working on that I can rollback to if I can't fix something.

The easiest way to find out what's going on is to ask on Discord. If you're not already there, you can join us at https://discord.gg/3UDR8SrBcA. Discord is also where I concentrate all my bug reports and suggestions in dedicated Bug Report and Suggestion forums. If you spot a problem or have a suggestion, that's where I ask you to leave that data, so I don't lose it!

Discord is also where people share their characters, talk about their clans' personal stories and quests ("to breed the Jokkad with the lowest stats in the game!"), and help one another out. I highly encourage you to join!

Important Note: This beta is for Patreon and Locals subscribers only!

The patronage of my subscribers on these two platforms (along with the alpha testers' contributions) made it possible for me to drop everything and spend five months working exclusively on this. That support resulted in 140,000 lines of code and 2000+ files, over 1600 of which are art I've drawn for this project: clothing, backgrounds, templates, icons. 

You can subscribe to my Patreon or Locals today if you want to play! Your support will enable ongoing development. You can pick either platform... you get the same access from both sites. Here are the quick links to the game posts:

• Patreon onboarding post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-is-153171882
• Locals onboarding post: https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/7772345/early-access-is-now-live-come-join-us-on-ke-bakil

Second Important Note: The Most Solid Part of This Game Involves Your Personal Data

As I've written in the ToS, I don't maintain your login data: google handles that for me. I hand you off to them, they do what they need to do, and they hand me back an anonymized session. I never see your email address or your password. Same with Paypal, for those of you buying gems: the only data I keep on the game server is the transaction number, so that I can check it against the transaction record on Paypal's server if there's a problem. And Paypal also handles all the transactions between you, your bank, and me, so I don't touch that either.

I did everything in my power to make sure much larger companies were handling all the scary stuff so you don't have to worry about it. :)

Having said all that: I hope you decide to join us!

• Patreon onboarding post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-access-is-153171882
• Locals onboarding post: https://studiomcah.locals.com/post/7772345/early-access-is-now-live-come-join-us-on-ke-bakil
• DISCORD INVITE: https://discord.gg/6gfJA8pveE

Haven't read the Jokka books yet? You can shop for those, along with art and merchandise, in the Jokka collection on my store.

But Jaguar, I'm not a Gamer! What About Other Stuff! I Need Cat Pictures!

Happy news for you then: after a five-month code sprint, I feel like I can breathe again. Think about other things! I'm already playing with a couple of Kickstarter ideas (stickers maybe, but... postcards? I like postcards. I'd like to send some!). And I'm actually looking forward to writing fiction again. So stay tuned on that front... I should have more news for you next month!

As for cat pictures... here's the outdoor cat, summoning me for Affection Time. She will jump up here when she's either hungry or lonely... if the latter, she just wants you to sit outside with her and pet her.

The other day, we had a lot of construction being done in the area and she ran and hid from all the bustle. My indoor cat was disconsolate. He didn't do any of his routine things in the morning... he just kept looking out the window, waiting for her to show up. He didn't resume acting normally until she finally appeared late in the evening: his world had resumed its natural order. The Girl had been seen. He could relax.😊

I notice that even when they aren't interacting (through a window, usually), they'll often choose positions where they're not far from one another... despite being separated by walls! So he'll sleep in the living room when she's on the porch, for instance. Can they perceive each other through some psychic cat sense? Is that how the Cat Distribution System works? ("We can tell you have no adjacent cat...") Mysterious! But sweet.

Anyway, I have been working really hard for months (like, pulling 6-7 day work weeks, for hours a day, sometimes long into the evenings). I am going to go rest on my laurels. For a few hours. Lol.

(No seriously, I'm going to try to relax this week.)

Thank you all for your continued interest in my strange and eclectic projects. I hope to see some of you on Ke Bakil! And I'll talk to you again in April! Be well, all!