Hey all!

Steve here with some exciting news (well, we think so). With the finalization of the game design, and active development planned out, we can be much more accurate with our milestone builds, so even though giving out dates is always an exercise in disappointment, we’ve put a lot of time into scheduling out the releases, and we’re prepared to give at least tentative release dates for each build. So without further ado, here’s the alpha release schedule!

CURRENT BUILD AS OF 4/4/16: .2.1.0.5

.3 BUILD: Adds new UI, command modes, updated Character Screens, Projects, Trade, Holdings, Houses, Cultures, core Actions, Relationship States between Characters, start of AI Strategy Tree implementation. TARGET DATE: 5/1

.4 BUILD: Adds Constellations, complete System UI, Planet UI, all Military/Economic Submodes, Political Submodes, Pops/Demographic Submodes, Main Game Screen, House Setup Screen, Emperor Setup Screen, Pop Ideas, Additional Actions and Projects, Power Mechanic, Religions, Other Civs Generation, End Game Manager, Music/Sound. TARGET DATE: 6/1

.5 BUILD: Adds Celestial Council, Budget system, Finance Prime, Save/Load, additional Core Actions and Projects, Emperor UI/Diary, Psychic System & UI, Begin implementation of Aitvaras Master AI, Character Attention AI, Threat Assessment AI, Opportunity Spotting AI, Council AI, Music Engine for dynamic music. TARGET DATE: 7/15

.6 BUILD: Includes Intel system & UI, Inquisitors, Secrets, Intel Prime, Secondary Actions, Secondary/Intel Projects. TARGET DATE: 8/15

.7 BUILD: Includes Military system & UI, Military units, Military Projects & Actions, Generals/Admirals TARGET DATE: 10/1 (Proposed Early Access Date)

.8 BUILD: Includes Reform system & UI, Reform/Military Projects, Reform Actions, Military Research system & UI, Academies TARGET DATE: 11/1

.9 BUILD: Includes Deals system & UI, tertriary Actions, Begin implementation of Dealmaking AI, Xyl AI, Videos TARGET DATE: 12/15

1.0 ALPHA BUILD: Add Xyl mechanics & UI, Optimization, all end-game videos, intro video

FINAL TARGET FOR 1.0 ALPHA: 2/1/17

So the plan for now(TM) is to have a viable playable release with the release of the .7 Build. This would contain about 80% of the game elements, and most of the AI. Obviously with a game like this a lot of balance is needed and that will take a lot of time, which is where early access comes in. I have made my stance clear about early access/Kickstarter projects for years now (for those new to this blog: I’m not a fan) because I don’t like the idea of releasing half-assed products for money. We haven’t made a final decision yet about what we’re going to do with regards to that – so we have a question for you.

Now that you’ve seen the feature schedule, we’ve added a poll that asks what build you would consider the earliest ‘playable’ release, if any. We think it’s .7, but we’d like your input. We want to do a lot of things like this, similar to Games2Gether, and get our community’s thoughts!

Thanks for your continued support!

-Steve

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