On March 7th, Leaving DNA will be released as an early access title for Itch on March 7th.  This will coincide with the release of Episode Three.  Unlike the first two episodes, Episode Three will be a paid release, but buying the game on Itch now will give you access to all future episodes (eight planned episodes) of Leaving DNA.  Unlike some games that switch to new projects on Itch and you have to re-buy each new episode, with Leaving DNA you will only have to purchase it once.  The price will be $12.

I am also announcing that there will only be four more releases of Leaving DNA.  Episode Three will release by itself, Episode Four will release by itself, and Episode Five will release by itself.  Then I will work on Episodes Six, Seven, and Eight simultaneously, and I will wait until all three episodes are complete before releasing all of them--maybe a week apart from each other.  I expect Episodes Six through Eight to be smaller than Episodes One through Three, so this isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but it will definitely require some patience from everyone.

My reasoning for this is that my priority has always been to produce the best game I can and tell the story in the most impactful way.  There is a tremendous amount of story momentum created by Episode Six, and if I follow it up with another long development period, that momentum will be lost and what happens in Episodes Seven and Eight won't have as much impact.  Conversely, while there is a really good cliffhanger at the end of Episode Five, it's the kind of cliffhanger that you'll be okay waiting a bit longer to see what happens next.

Episode One will continue to be available as a free demo.  I've previously released Episode Two for free, but my Itch link for Episode Two is being replaced with a link for just Episode One.  I think that if someone doesn't like the game by the time they finish the two hours of content in Episode One then Leaving DNA is not for them.

I appreciate the support of everyone who is planning to purchase the game!

--Monk