As I’ve said a few times now I think we should call the next release 0.6.0 to close off this year (planned release is first week of December) to highlight how much stuff we’ve got done this year, and to indicate that we’ll now start working through the roadmap. Though, for this release I think we can have one last time when we’ll just work on whatever each person wants to work on and next year for 0.6.1 I’ll make the first milestone based on the first roadmap goals.
I’ve already created the milestone on Github and put a few high priority problems that didn’t make it into 0.5.10 in it, as well as a few things I plan on working on myself:
My plans of things to work on:
Making the game handle crashing on startup due to mods much better
Launcher 2.0, this is an entire rewrite of the launcher with a different GUI framework. I’ve already made a reasonable amount of progress on this but I think this’ll take quite a lot of my time. The previous feature needs launcher changes to really work well, and I’m done with trying to work with the existing launcher codebase.
Working on the upgrade system and then help finish the cilia attraction feature
GUI keyboard and controller navigation (perhaps also fixing some controller input stuff to work better, adding remapping), unless @FuJa0815 takes this work off from me, and GUI focused state visuals for elements
Fixing random small stuff (so far there’s at least 2 new bugs being reported for 0.5.10)
That’s already a lot so I may not get the chance to work on any prototype progress, especially considering as I plan to make this release happen this year, we only have 2 months for this release instead of 3. Probably for 0.6.1 I’ll then again focus on prototypes so that I can get those out of the way in order to start helping getting the roadmap features finished.
So what do you plan on working on? Even if I’m not adding the roadmap stuff in 0.6.0, people are entirely free to already start working on those if they want.
My intended focus for the next period is fleshing out our designs for the multicellular stage, at the very least so that we can get some “proper” gameplay in the prototype before hh moves on to the next.
Or perhaps it would be better for me to focus on the minimum of each stage, creating a skeletal structure of progression so hh can more easily move on?
Other than that, I am going to be keeping an eye on the community to see what they think of the latest changes to the gameplay loop, and adjust accordingly.
I’m also going to be paying attention to the community’s feedback on the growth mechanic. I will continue making my way through the roadmap, trying to make that final push in discussion to finalize concepts. This will help things move slowly when we shift gear fully into the roadmap. With combat and upgrades addressed, I believe toxins and immunology are my next focus.
Beyond that, I’m making a document highlighting a vision for how a completed microbe stage will ideally look like. It’s a bit like the GDD, but instead of individually describing each mechanic, I discuss what gameplay purpose each mechanic will serve in the microbe stage. I feel this will help with the overarching Thrivian fallacy of not knowing what level of detail and complexity is enough for a specific mechanic.
It’s already about 12 pages on google docs, so prepare for a lengthy document. And of course, it shouldn’t just be my word; it absolutely should be tweaked in accordance to other’s thoughts.
My first priority in 0.6.0 is getting the Thriveopedia/fossilisation stuff done. It’s mostly there now on my branch, just needs a few more visuals and the actual saving/loading of species. Plus review time of course. I’ll try and get it ready for review and testing in the next few days.
I’d then like to pull the day/night cycle over the finish line. I was annoyed it missed 0.5.10 and I’m fairly confident I can fill the gaps myself.
If I have time after that, I’ll see what I can do about cannibalism. I’ll also try some performance improving experiments based on the feedback I got after asking for suggestions on the Godot subreddit, although these will likely be quite limited.