Build Branches (Demo vs. Commercial)

Hi!

Here's a little update related to build branches that are part of this Phase 2 roadmap.

Basically the project is now separated to two different builds: Demo and Commercial.

This current demo build will get bug fixes and those upcoming 3 demo patches like promised but this other commercial branch will go through totally different pipeline in terms of contractor work, development priority and upcoming Phase 2 features.

Here's few key things that are related to this topic:

• In game development, when you are developing a commercial game, one extremely important topic is "launch windows". This basically means that there are certain windows in each year that could be potential launch windows for a commercial indie game. Good launch windows are basically periods when there's relatively little competition in terms of other similar games etc. These windows need to be researched really early and they kind of direct the entire roadmap and production pace from this point forward.

• Another thing related to commercial games is so called "ramp-up" towards the release. Road to Vostok is not yet near this, but the topic is kind of important already now. Basically "ramp-up" will require increasing efforts financially, marketing-wise and some sort of game plan on how to approach the release once it becomes closer and more relevant.

• Then third thing related to this commercial branch is some sort of "X-factor" that creates a clear difference between the free demo and the commercial product. You could also think this topic as "overdelivering", meaning if you have formed some sort of expectation about the current demo, the commercial version should provide something that exceeds that by a big margin.

The reason why I wanted to mention these topics now is that starting next month, there will be pretty huge changes on development priority and so called "feature highlights".

For example, you will start seeing some new stuff that I haven't even talked about yet related to this project and this for example is related to that "X-factor" thing that essentially should provide feelings like "I haven't seen something like this in any other game..." etc.

I think this post will provide a pretty cool "inside view" on these upcoming things, since you can kind of see how I approach this upcoming phase and what kind of strategies I'm going to use.

I also want to highlight that none of this means that Road to Vostok is rushing towards some specific launch window, I just wanted to give you a small glimpse behind the scenes on how I'm going to approach this commercial build and Phase 2 in-general.

ps. The first "X-factor feature" is going to be related to shelters and how you actually customize those :)

-Antti (Developer)