Currently only I’m the one who usually remembers all the things we need to do for a release. I’d like to make sure we don’t forget something related to making a new release. To help with that I’ve started to collect a checklist that we can make as an issue template on the organization repo (https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/Thrive-Organization) then each time a release is coming up a new issue can be created with a blank checklist. Then we can work through the list to not forget any part of the release.
Here’s what I have so far:
[ ] 9 days before release: check open PRs to see if any is close enough to done so that they can be pushed to be finished
[ ] Ask on discord if people are up for a release podcast
[ ] Mention on discord that feature freeze has started
[ ] 7 days before release: merge open PRs from weblate (first push all pending changes from weblate)
[ ] Run scripts/update_translation_progress.rb
[ ] Make a release candidate and post on the community forums and discord (use DevCenter file hosting for the downloads)
[ ] Post announcement on Weblate when deadline for translations is (2 days before the release at the end of the day)
[ ] Enable the auto comment on PRs about feature freeze
[ ] Start drafting the release on Github
[ ] Post the patch notes draft on discord so that devblog can start
[ ] Get someone (or our usual trailer guy) to start working on a trailer
[ ] Make a livestream event on Youtube if there are probably enough people for it
[ ] 1 day before release: merge last small fix PRs
[ ] Merge last translations PR (first push all pending changes from weblate)
[ ] Make sure trailer is ready to go
[ ] Run scripts/update_translation_progress.rb
[ ] Update credits with scripts/retrieve_credits.rb
[ ] On the day of release: compile and upload builds to Github release draft
[ ] Publish the release on Github
[ ] Update the launcher repo to have the new version listed in the launcher
[ ] Publish the trailer on our Youtube channel
[ ] Publish the devblog
[ ] Link the release on Github to the devblog and link the trailer in the devblog
Some new items: Steam and itch beta channel updates and testing before pushing to stable, and also making sure save upgraders are fine if save compatibility is not meant to be broken.