Hey,
No probs. I'm always up for questions. Also, I'm happy the story is still holding up after a few rereads.
1) The Year. So there's actually no year associated with the game. I've purposely tried to write the dialogue with references or slang that's all over the place. Some of the references Zack makes reference things from decades ago. But also other references are much more modern (like "millennials" and some technology references). I did that purposely to try to make the game transcend the readers age groups. I sorta wanted any legal age to be able to pick the game up and see something that's applicable to their generation.
2)True Story or not? For this question, I'm just gonna post a link to a Patreon post. It gives some background on the purpose of the game, too. Don't worry, it's a free post and you don't need a Patreon account to view the post. You can check it out here
Hope this helps. If you still have more questions, hit me up. And no problem on being available. I like being accessible as a developer. Lot of devs aren't or they just have a narcissistic attitude. It's honestly super humbling to talk to fans of the project so thanks for the interest <3