23 days to go, and I'm gradually ticking off everything that needs to be done:

known bugs: 100 non-text and 150 text changes to go (7 days?)

changes to the story: I'm still not happy with how it starts. Don't worry, the events won't change, but the dialog will. I've been reading up on how to start a story and I think, as the opening to what will be a very large series of games, what Peri and her mother say can be greatly improved.

unknown bugs and changes suggested by testers: the last 2 weeks.

general improvements to dialog: this is what I'll do if there's any time left.

shopping basket: works, but I need to clarify some details with BMT regarding buy-one-get-the-next-two-free

revised web site: planned, and should take just 1 day to implement.

demo game: this is the one most likely to slip. It's quite likely that the full game plus copious screenshots will be available on 15th December, but the demo won't be available until the 17th. This is because the demo is a cut-down version of the finished game. If I make the demo too soon then it won't reflect any last minute changes in the underlying code: the whole point of the demo is to show that the game will play reliably on a particular computer.

videos of game play: the demo is short (for bandwidth reasons) so I was planning on relying more on videos to show the game in progress. However, my computer isn't fast enough to play the game AND capture 30 frames a second. And I don't have the time to work out some kind of video connection from the back (experience tells me this would take at least a week for various reasons that are too boring to go into). So I had planned on asking some kind soul at indiegamers.com to grab some footage for me. But the chances are very high that they wouldn't choose the footage I would choose (it's too much to ask to get them to play the entire game and video everything then edit the best bits it for me), so any in-game video is likely to show boring scene changes. So if I do use videos they'll be secondary - the main selling point will be the screenshots of key moments.

Two things to remember:
1. This this is not a "Hollywood style" one day big bang launch. It's deliberately low key. I'm not announcing it anywhere except here, and to the people who have asked to be emailed when it's released. The BIG launch will be in June when I have six months of experience, two stories completed, and the third on its way.
2. The big concept behind this game is to have lots of stories. I don't want people judging the whole thing by how well Les Miserables plays - it's only a small part of the whole. Each story is like a single episode ina TV series, or a single issue of Classics Illustrated. "Quantum Leap" is probably the best parallel. Obviously I hope Les Miserables is a rewarding experience on its own, but I don't expect people to finish saying "that was the best game ever." I'm hoping they finish and think "I wonder what happens next." It's a series. Hence I'm not promoting the game until the second part, when people can see each story in the context of a much larger whole.