February Roadmap

In my previous post, I celebrated all of the milestones I've accomplished while working on February. I also discussed how I am managing the project. Here’s a quick recap: I divided the project into six phases and each phase has a measurable milestone where I can hold myself accountable.

I finished Phase 3 today. Which means that the February Demo is available on steam to play now! You can wishlist it too!

The road ahead

Now my break is over, I am working on game development full time and my hope is that features will be built at the same speed as they were at the beginning of the project. I understand there is a lot of outstanding work, so I’ve defined smaller milestones to help maintain my motivation.

In Phase 4, I will essentially complete the build for the core gameplay loop: run > collect > upgrade. I want everything in Phase 4 to be available in the free-to-play demo on Steam. I plan to frequently update the live demo, provided that the overhead to do so is small.

During Phase 4, I also expect that supporting the browser version on itch will become a distraction. I suspect the game will reach a point in complexity where it wont run properly in the browser. I’ve already observed limitations in multithreading, audio buffering, and screen resolution, but they’re only issues on the browser version. I promise it works on my machine!

Phase 4 milestone 1: complete the features that will take the most time or are project-killers.

• Upgrade to the latest version of Godot (4.5).
• Add a way to seed the random number generator for each adventure.
• Replace the world generation algorithm with one that is suitable for my use case, and use the adventure seed.
• Build the integration that supports Steam achievements, but not necessarily define or build the achievements. One or two will be enough.

Phase 4 milestone 2: make the character satisfying to control.

• Add new character abilities.
• Make the character controls satisfying for the player.
• Replace the character health bar with a less punishing system.
• Implement placeholder poses (which will later become animations) for the character using a state chart.
• Add a variety of new tiles that can appear in the worlds.
• Find satisfying interactions between tiles and the character.

Phase 4 milestone 3: extend the shop and overall the graphics.

• Create visual and audio assets that aren’t placeholder (or engage third parties).
• Extend the shop with single use upgrades that allow the player to make meaningful choices about world generation.
• Add randomness to each shop’s inventory, using the same adventure seed.
• Add different collectable currencies that can be spent by the player.
• Find interactions between different world upgrades that feel satisfying for the player to optimise.

Polish polish!

The goal of Phase 5 is to make February really run to play. I expect to write little in the way of actual code and focus more on balance, tuning and gameplay feedback.

I intend to withhold the remaining unbuilt features from the demo. The main codebase will become the closed beta for playtesters only. I only want to support two branches of the code at most. For this reason, I’ve decided not to support early access. I think it would be too much work and wouldn’t improve my final sales. I still want to synchronise any visual improvements between the demo and the beta. It wouldn’t hurt to make the demo look pretty, right?

Phase 5 milestone 1: define the main adventure.

• Define many world types for the player to encounter. This is the main input to the world generation algorithm and includes chunk layout and world-level parameters. This does not include any visual assets.
• Add items to the shop that further influence world generation and possibly the rarity of different world features or structures.
• Add a story to game, with an option to skip any dialogue in the settings. I want the game to be fun without it too. 
• Define a default endpoint for February’s exploration, but let the player choose to continue past this endpoint indefinitely with all of their upgrades, inspired by Balatro.  
• Explore the space where the player can choose between a number of different worlds to travel to next. Consider additional choices the player can make, between the shop and entering a world. 
• Add alternative win conditions to some worlds.

Phase 5 milestone 2: balance the gameplay and make it visually appealing.

• Fine tune all parameters for balance and fun.
• Extend world generation algorithm to allow different visuals, including tile sets and skins for the world. The scope of this is only the visual assets of each world. 
• Juice the game audio and visuals so that it’s fun to achieve a combo or a synergy.  

Phase 5 milestone 3: add accessibility and integration.

• Enable further integration with steam: achievements, leader boards, cloud saves and statistics.
• Allow the player to change keyboard key binds.
• Add full controller support.
• Add (some) localisation.
• Go live with the full release. Potentially retire the demo.

Aftercare

Like all software development work, I expect to update February after releasing the full version. This is the first game that I’ll make and I don’t intend to indefinitely support it with balance changes and new features. If it turns out to be a hit, then I reserve the right to change my mind!

Phase 6: support the stability and accessibility.

• Fix inevitable post-release bugs.
• Extend localisation.

Depending on interest and success:

• Improve game balance and add new obstacles and world types.
• Consider rogue-lite elements, such as a currency that can only be spent outside adventures in a non-randomised shop, inspired by For The King and its sequel, For The King II.
• Consider rebuilding the menu to begin an adventure, inspired by Wildfrost.
• Add a glossary or compendium for reference without assuming a player to remember what everything does.
• Add different game modes, with increasing difficultly with more Steam achievements and leader boards.

When is the release date?

I plan to incrementally update the demo throughout October to receive feedback and inform the direction of the project. I hope to finish Phase 4 by the beginning of November.

The final goal is to release the full game before the end of the year. It’s certainly within my reach, but given that the first two phases took twice the time I expected, this might be too ambitious! I would rather postpone the release date than scale back on my gameplay to-do to meet this deadline. The worst thing that could happen is that I move my timeline back and I release February in… well… February!