Hello Everyone! Today, I'd like to talk about our plan for 2024. We've layed down the last steps that should allow us to hopefully leave Early Access this year! Without further ado, let's break it down. [h2]The 2024 Roadmap[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/6287e04aa3772f8a6ec158fbcb32d2a4ff907694.jpg[/img] Here is our latest (and last) Early Access Roadmap. Some steps have been removed while others have been changed: We've removed "Enemies & Environment" along with the "5th Endgame Mode" that were in our previous Roadmap. The truth is that it does not feel necessary to consider the game as complete. Of course, we could keep adding stuff to The Slormancer but we feel that we have enough enemy diversity and enough environments for now. As for the 5th Endgame Mode, we believe that our 4th Endgame Mode called "The Warlords" will be more than enough to complete the gameplay loop we want for the game. We believe that these additions would benefit the game so we may very well add them after the release in 1.0 but our current priority is to polish our game and get it out of Early Access. As you may have noticed on the Roadmap, there should be 3 Major Updates leading to the release. [list] [*] [u]Update: 0.8[/u]: Will introduce the Codex and the Achievements. [*] [u]Update: 0.9[/u]: Will introduce a lot of changes regarding Balance and Player's Experience based on all the feedback we've gathered this past few years. [*] [u]Update: 1.0[/u]: Will introduce the end to the Story, the fight against The Slormancer, The Warlords Endgame Mode, the Influence that will be tied to it along with a big batch of Legendary Items. [/list]At first, we wanted The Warlords to come earlier but we decided that we needed to drop something big along with the 1.0 Release so The Warlords Update will actually sign the end of Early Access. We will playtest it in Closed Beta just to make sure that everything works properly before the release. There are a few key elements that will be worked on along with Update 0.8 and Update 0.9 such as: [list] [*] Performance. [*] Massive Debugging. [*] Translation. [/list]We have a bunch of deadlines set up along the year and we'll quickly know whether we can make it for 2024 or not. Now that we're so close, better not mess up. [h2]Update 0.8: The Encyclopedia Update[/h2] [h3]The Codex[/h3] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/ddea70430bb07b72bf57d262e785255854142a42.png[/img] We've been working pretty hard on this Update already: We're done with the Codex (see above) but we've also added a pretty neat little feature: Since some new players were lost when reading their Skills and Upgrades for the first time as to what stat does what, we've added an extra tooltip that explains all stats that are mentioned in said Skill or Upgrade. AND for seasoned players, it also displays the current value of the stat so that you don't have to move back and forth your inventory. This should be really useful for everyone that doesn't quite understand how some of our stats work. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/f4d5a02c47099814368e81a92e9688da927a120a.png[/img] [h3]Achievements[/h3] As for Achievements, we're almost done as well. The menu and most achievements are complete and we're currently sitting at more than 200 Achievements divided in about 700 steps. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/e26ea74af1e3c590b76366f98a5967094ab06073.png[/img] About [u]Steam Achievements[/u]: They will be available for the release of The Slormancer (for the 1.0 release). There should be around 50 to 70 Steam Achievements chosen among all the ingame Achievements. We believe that Achievements are a powerful tool to encourage players to return to the game and we would like for this to happen at the best time for the game which is when it leaves Early Access. That being said, everything you unlock now with ingame Achievements will be synchronized with Steam Achievements as soon as they become available (you won't have to do them twice). Regarding Steam, we will also introduce Badges, Emoticons, Cards, Wallpapers etc... with the release of the 1.0 release. These are ready aswell so we can give you a small preview. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/d5193f19bd68868e6f9dd6d30359eabe3f28e1e3.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/5b0892b19629010ec021843332fc8ccda6ad3181.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35818693/85481da237e656ec37c633ace522307cea57561c.png[/img] As you can see, the "Big Features" of the update are almost complete and it is now time to work on some of the invisible stuff such as Performance and Bugs. I really want to take the time to take care of most of our Performance issues in the next couple of weeks. So, no release date just yet for Update 0.8. It'll depend on how fast I'm able to fix Performance issues. That's about it for now. Cheers!