Indie developer Cardboard Computer is developing Kentucky Route Zero, an episodic game of magical realism, secret highways, and strange Americana The first of five episodes scheduled for January 7, 2013 has been released, and a countdown is currently underway suggesting that the final episode may be released this week.

To access this countdown, you must be in the US and call the Kentucky Route Zero Development Status Hotline at 1-858-WHEN-KRZ. The following message will be played: "The current status of Kentucky Route Zero is being prepared for release. More information will be available shortly. If you would like to wait, please do so. Please wait."

After a minute or so of listening to the hold music, you are told that the estimated wait time is 3,000-odd minutes. Detectives from Twitter and the Kentucky Route Zero wiki recorded this message and calculated that it should hit zero this Tuesday, January 7, exactly seven years after the first episode was released.

To learn more about Kentucky Route Zero, check out Joe Donnelly's making-of featurette from a few years ago.