Kentucky Route Zero's development status hotline is now counting down to (hopefully) Act V's release

It's looking like we'll soon be getting some fresh Kentucky Route Zero news if a countdown on the game's development status hotline is to be believed. Developer Cardboard Computer has also put out a suitably opaque tweet, which seems to have led to the discovery of the countdown.

For those not sure why this is a big deal, Kentucky Route Zero is an episodic game series that launched its first act way back in 2013. Since then, we've seen three subsequent acts and a number of smaller interludes that expand on the magical realist narrative and its many oddball characters.

Okay so I just called the Kentucky Route Zero Development Status hotline and was told that the current status is: Preparing For Publication! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! https://t.co/D65QKxpQMz — Carolyn Petit is looking for work! (@carolynmichelle) 5 January 2020

Despite the lengthy wait between acts, Kentucky Route Zero remains one of my favourite games of all time – and it's not even finished. It's basically a point and click title that strips away puzzles to focus purely on creating an atmosphere and delivering an utterly compelling narrative experience.

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At the time of writing, there should be around 3800 minutes left to wait, meaning we may well have Act V (and hopefully TV Edition, the Switch port) in around 63 hours, which would be late on Tuesday. Of course, the countdown could instead be leading up to the announcement of a release date, but the tweet above says that the hotline now lists the status as "preparing for publication".

If you're yet to give KRZ a go, know that it's mysterious, strange, oddly affecting, and almost constantly surprising. Definitely seek it out when it finally hits Nintendo Switch – and hopefully mobile at a later date.