2026 Roadmap - December dev update - Visual and muscial Sneak peeks

[h2]Happy New Year!🎉[/h2][p]2025 included: my debut as a full-time Gamedev, a successful Kickstarter, going from 100 to 5800 wishlists and seeing Adventurers Guild Inc. take shape one keystroke and mouse click at a time.

I can't thank you enough for your incredible support so far and I think you will like what I have in store for 2026!

So buckle up as this news will be a bigger one including: Plans for 2026, the usual monthly dev update and finally: some new screenshots, Gifs and other cool stuff I did these past few months.[/p][p][/p][h3]📆 2026 Roadmap: [/h3]

• [p]Q1 2026: Game build preparation, Internal tests[/p]
• [p]Q2 2026: Invite only playtests and public Demo[/p]
• [p]Q3 2026 : Game release target[/p]

[p]Schedule subject to adjustments. Exact dates will be revealed during Q1 and/or Q2.
[/p][h3]💻 December dev and behind the scene update: [/h3]

• [p]Adventurer strikes integration: Added solutions for edge cases and potential exploits, built the Strike Negotiation Ui with dynamic outcome previews, and hooked strike states into other systems (Evening, reputation, etc.).[/p]
• [p]QuestBoard feedback: New Ui feedback to show not only which quests are not taken but most importantly why some adventurers aren’t picking any quests (not interested in anything, incapacitated, on strike, etc.).[/p]
• [p]Evening phase progress: Updated this old Ui to match the new Ui style of the QuestBoard and other Ui I worked on this year and to match the updates I made to the simulation linked to this sequence. Also refined facility throughput and staff roles during the evening and added a self-service option where relevant.[/p]
• [p]Late-game testing: Simulated about 170 adventurers to validate Ui density and the simulation’s behavior at scale (this was a feel and "does it scale well?" pass, not balancing => and it does (scale well) =D).[/p]
• [p]Polish across scenes. Several Ui and UX touches like framing, drag-and-drop, button highlights, and other readability/visual feedback improvements.[/p]
• [p]Finalised 2026 dev milestones and marketing plan, planned all the 2026 art commissions, and gathered external feedback during a short holiday break from friends and family who had last seen what the game looked like back in December 2024.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]👀 Sneak peek at some of the progress in Q3 and Q4 2025 (check past news for all the dev updates! =) )[/h3][p][/p][p]1] The QuestBoard: is central to the game and received some well deserved attention: a reworked request left panel, a functioning right panel with forecast dynamically updating as you tweak quests (using true "adventurer interest" code, no hidden sim or randomness here!). The panel itself is still WIP as well as quests values, names, etc.[/p][p] [/p][p]2] "The Helper": These past months I also worked on deepening the lore and some characters (most of the work was done in 2024 during the design phase. One of them is "The Helper" a "magical intelligence" here to "help" you boost productivity with its snarky (mutable) comments (and the main protagonist of the tutorial). Here is some research i did on his expressions (Wip). [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]3] Main Musical Theme teaser : C. Filipe Alves composed a wonderful main theme for the game and is working on the other in-game soundtracks! I think perfectly sets the tone for the game! (follow the YouTube link below to listen to it)[/p][p]
=> Listen to it on Youtube! [/p][p][/p][p]4] Recruitement draft: Earlier this year I worked a lot on the recruitment scene, it was a lot of code and Ux work (even had to develop rival guilds to make the sequence fun) I don't know if that will transpire in this screenshot since it still needs a full Ui pass but here is a look at it anyway (this is part of the scene, here is the Mages panel with candidates, some selected, their power score, and the state of bidding for this class)[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]And more: Connected weekly loop, new pixel art backgrounds for all scenes, quest generation overhaul (escalations, repeatable quests, unique modifiers), quest consequences (injuries, gear wear, recovery), Interest Forecast V2, evening simulation and Ui, adventurer's strikes with negotiation, Day/Quest reports, Request Inbox & clearer QuestBoard feedback, readability pass (scaled UI, polish), original illustrations pipeline, main theme composed & integrated, localization integration and pipeline, new adventurer sprites to liven the guild.
In a nutshell: a lot of work, but a lot of fun!

I was a bit quieter on socials these past few months but keep an eye on them as there will be some reveals small and big and everything should intensify as the year goes on!
[/p][p]Thanks for reading, supporting the project and following me on this adventure, 2026 will be incredible and I hope a lot of people will have as much fun with the game as I've had with it so far!

See you next month!
Vincent L.[/p][hr][/hr][p]\[Wishlist on Steam] • \[Join the Discord] • \[Follow on socials][/p]