Release date and Roadmap update
Howdy folks,
we finally sat down at a table (albeit virtual, thanks Covid for ruining our social bonding) to discuss the latest steps of development, and to figure out a tentative release date for our little child.
Now I imagine you'll be anxious to skip the chitchat and go straight to the big news, so first thing first, here it is:
Still here? Good! Now let's dig into the details.
[h2]
What happens until Oct. 5?[/h2]
Well, you know the drill: there's still a lot to do on our Trello board, including updating the list itself.
Given the somehow short window of time, 90% of our efforts will still be focused on improving the AI until we feel like we reached a decent score target. As you read in Cody's detailed dive-in (see other News), the new AI system is under delicate surgery, but shows promising results. While the development is going forward, we are trying to point out the basic rules which should empower the AI behaviour tree; though the basic rules are quite obvious from an experienced player's point of view, there's also a lot of trial-and-error related to the randomness that defines how content is assigned on the board, workers values etc.
To deal with that, the best thing to do is to just work with a lot, and a lot, and a lot of data. So while the AI is capable of simulating a ton of games in quick time (thus allowing us to evaluate its basic performance), we will start collecting more detailed data on how human players perform their actions, as nothing beats a firsthand, data-driven examination of human strategy in our Renaissance battle of wits.
If everything goes right (which is quite the big deal, given how 2020 has been so far), version 1.0 will feature a new AI which should be slightly more effective (or less stupid, if you prefer) and challenging.
The remaining 10% of time will be used to deal with critical bugs and crashes, as the bug tracking system will still work inside the game. If no additional issues arise, there probably won't be any more releases until Oct. 5 (unless we need some sort of stress test or we have to deliver some hotfixes on urgent bugs).
[h2] What next?[/h2]
Of course, version 1.0 is a massive milestone to hit, but it will leave some room for improvements as well. This is why we will continue to support the project and to deliver at least another major update, especially when we'll have enough data from played games to improve the overall AI performance.
After all, we want to ensure the AI works as intended before considering the project done.
As far as other features that were requested (such as the async multiplayer), we will have to evaluate the development effort to understand whether they are deliverable according to how well the game is received after the launch date.
Again, our bug reporting / feedback form will remain available in the game even after launch, as a quick way to deliver messages directly to everyone involved in the project, but we'll also be around here and on BoardGameGeek to address every issue you may have.
That's it for now, people. As always, thank you for supporting us and for your patience. We've been on a long way with this project and we hope we'll be able to make it as close as possible to what you initially envisioned this game to be.
Until next time,
take care!
we finally sat down at a table (albeit virtual, thanks Covid for ruining our social bonding) to discuss the latest steps of development, and to figure out a tentative release date for our little child.
Now I imagine you'll be anxious to skip the chitchat and go straight to the big news, so first thing first, here it is:
We are targeting Oct. 5 2020 as the release date for Lorenzo il Magnifico!
Still here? Good! Now let's dig into the details.
[h2]
What happens until Oct. 5?[/h2]Well, you know the drill: there's still a lot to do on our Trello board, including updating the list itself.
Given the somehow short window of time, 90% of our efforts will still be focused on improving the AI until we feel like we reached a decent score target. As you read in Cody's detailed dive-in (see other News), the new AI system is under delicate surgery, but shows promising results. While the development is going forward, we are trying to point out the basic rules which should empower the AI behaviour tree; though the basic rules are quite obvious from an experienced player's point of view, there's also a lot of trial-and-error related to the randomness that defines how content is assigned on the board, workers values etc.
To deal with that, the best thing to do is to just work with a lot, and a lot, and a lot of data. So while the AI is capable of simulating a ton of games in quick time (thus allowing us to evaluate its basic performance), we will start collecting more detailed data on how human players perform their actions, as nothing beats a firsthand, data-driven examination of human strategy in our Renaissance battle of wits.
If everything goes right (which is quite the big deal, given how 2020 has been so far), version 1.0 will feature a new AI which should be slightly more effective (or less stupid, if you prefer) and challenging.
The remaining 10% of time will be used to deal with critical bugs and crashes, as the bug tracking system will still work inside the game. If no additional issues arise, there probably won't be any more releases until Oct. 5 (unless we need some sort of stress test or we have to deliver some hotfixes on urgent bugs).
[h2]
What next?[/h2]Of course, version 1.0 is a massive milestone to hit, but it will leave some room for improvements as well. This is why we will continue to support the project and to deliver at least another major update, especially when we'll have enough data from played games to improve the overall AI performance.
After all, we want to ensure the AI works as intended before considering the project done.
As far as other features that were requested (such as the async multiplayer), we will have to evaluate the development effort to understand whether they are deliverable according to how well the game is received after the launch date.
Again, our bug reporting / feedback form will remain available in the game even after launch, as a quick way to deliver messages directly to everyone involved in the project, but we'll also be around here and on BoardGameGeek to address every issue you may have.
That's it for now, people. As always, thank you for supporting us and for your patience. We've been on a long way with this project and we hope we'll be able to make it as close as possible to what you initially envisioned this game to be.
Until next time,
take care!