LambdaRogue v1.7 still in 2018 -- Roadmap

Hi everybody!

After my last posts, in this post I want to publish some kind of roadmap for LambdaRogue v1.7 and beyond. Initially, when I re-published the game on itch.io, I just intended to "archive" the game here. The old v1.6.4 is playable, stable and was considered "complete" from my side, since nearly six years. However, roguelike projects are never really complete, and if you've followed my devlog in the last weeks, you know that I worked both on the visual and on the gameplay side of the game. I now write this post partly in order to restrain myself of "getting lost" in enhancements and additions too deeply (because in that case I could work endlessly on the update, without ever releasing something :) ). So here's my plan.

v1.7: Release between christmas and new year, i.e. still in 2018. The next update is definitely something I want to publish still in 2018. First of all, major LambdaRogue updates usually happened near christmas, so it's a nice tradition. Secondly, it's a good time work-wise, i.e. currently I've got the resources to do this, while in January I have to get back more intensly to my various real-life jobs. v1.7 is a pretty major update, with the new 40x80 tile set, artwork changes, several gameplay enhancements, balancing adjustments, bug fixes, etc. v1.7 will not change anything with the game's story, but the game will be more fluid to play. Shortly before release of v1.7, I'll publish a little trailer video. Things I have to finish are the addition of a few more items, some more variation for the deeper dungeons levels and their inhabitants, finalizing the small special levels, and a bit more variation in character generation (both the full generation and the quickstart presets).

v1.7.x: Bugfixes and adjustments in 1st half of 2019. There's no doubt that I'll get bug reports after v1.7 is available. I'll also get other feedback from player, about things working good and things working bad. Finally, I have some things which won't make it in v1.7, because I consider these things not so important. That's what smaller updates will be for. This will be done in the 1st half of 2019, as needed.

v1.8: Another major update, v1.8, may happen in fall 2019. Just like christmas, the time between August and October has always been a time for LambdaRogue updates, and I'd like to continue this tradition. If a v1.8 happens depends on player interest and my own, intrinsic motivation. Usually the latter is quite high, but of course it helps to see the download counter growing, to read a comment by a player, or even by a donation (which in fact goes directly in further artwork commissions for the game).

So, that's the plan. :)