The Roadmap to 1.0.0.0

Developing a game is an engaging experience for all of those involved, as a developer, a player, a streamer, or someone that just likes to keep track of things as they evolve. We're extremely early on in the process of Ballland: World and have a very limited set of resources when it comes to time. For Ballland Battles Deluxe, it was eight months of consistent, focused work. For this game, we have far less time, but a wealth of past experience from that game and BBLegacy to be able to take it all to the next level.

Below is the roadmap which is subject to change. It's a long journey with no known end date because of how much of a grind it'll be, and no known base of player support. Other games will finish their development cycles with far more activity and more budget, but the spirit of indie game development lives on within the niche community.

But to those that are questioning the nomenclature of the versions A.BB.CCC.DDDD, we'll explain the convention here and give some idea as to the features that lie ahead on the road to completion of Ballland: World.

A: 1. The game is feature complete, almost every bug removed and polished. Future updates are just for fixing bugs and the shifting of the engine.

BB: Major milestones. The first milestone at this point is the finishing of the multiplayer and single player engines, including offline and online play. This will get the game to the point of BQ2RP in that an entire set of games can be made alone using it. Multiplayer has a life of its own with events, tournaments, and a vibrant community. Single player also has a functioning online component where users can play endless stages in a timed form.

CCC: Minor milestones and their associated feature sets. This will be used more often as big features are added such as base social features or finishing all of the official multiplayer stages.

DDDD: Individual bug fixes, minor changes and tinkering of the code. For instance, reds smiling then their targets are dead will be a x.0001.

With that, here's an estimation of the roadmap. Keep in mind that we front-loaded a lot of major features like the level editor in order to bring us up to the level of Ballland Battles Deluxe and BBLegacy.

The Road to 1.0.0.0

 
0.0.1.3020 - minor bug fixes and improvements

0.0.1.3100 - finish tileset revamp

The tileset gets revamped with new elements and visual upgrades that allow for huge varieties of levels and stages.

0.0.1.5000 - half of official stages complete

Around this time a script will allow us to port levels made with the editor directly into the game itself, leading to a launcher that doesn't need to download stages, and no more stage manipulation for online play.

0.0.2. - official stages complete, all major battle modes added

Modes of desire are Coin Gathering, Bomb Chase, and more. The scoring criteria and XP gained are fine-tuned.

0.0.3. - social features framework complete, visual revamp

The ability to add friends, view the player listings, server announcements, and clan-specific rooms.

0.0.4. - upgradable stats, character assets, in-game currency

This will be the start of character assets, such as hats, suits, and other personalization styles.

0.1 - multiplayer, social features, single player engine complete (mobile app?)

Multiplayer special items, online single player play, and an integrated social system with our community. This'll include registered clans and verified users.

0.2 - single player online complete

Players will be able to run and play in servers continually in single player user-generated levels.

0.3 - single player levels complete

0.4 - story element framework implemented as messaging system

0.5 - effects and bosses in story mode

0.6 - multiplayer revamp with embedded tournament mode, elimination

0.7 - finished story mode

0.8 - asset decentralization

Game assets such as music and backgrounds can be totally built by users, for users.

1 - game complete

Game feature complete. No updates besides security patches, bug fixes, and engine updates.

I think the way to show progress on development shouldn’t be linear, so we’ll reform this because we’re actually quite advanced through the social features.