Colony roadmap

Art track. Runs alongside the phases from 0.1.5: models, textures and animation brought to the look of the key art, landing in the build as they are finished.

1. 0.1.1Done · build 123

   The World

   A spherical voxel planet generated from a seed. Terrain is marched from a density field, with caves, water and biomes. The solar system is generated with the world, and every body can be visited as a spectator.

2. 0.1.2Done · build 136

   Building and Orders

   Building by hand in first person, or by orders to colonists under the same work rules. Plots, levelling, foundations, work priorities. Both ways of playing proven end to end.

3. 0.1.3Done · build 148

   Views and Draw Distance

   First person, third person and a colony cutaway that steps through the world layer by layer. Quadtree terrain detail out to the horizon and into orbit. A readable HUD and a system map.

4. 0.1.4Done

   Models, Animation and Textures

   The asset pipeline: glTF models that carry their own rigs and animations, rigged and animated colonists in the running game, workstations at true scale, one art direction and material palette, clouds and distance haze, and containers that hold by mass and by volume.

5. 0.1.5In progress

   Systems and Simulation

   The machinery under the game made consistent: one source of truth for every world fact, one work rule for the player and the colonist, the server on its own thread, and crafting and production in their full form.

   • ✓Automated nightly colony simulations that measure every build (in the build)
   • ○Colony work throughput: finding and removing the stalls the simulations measure (in progress)
   • ○One material table and one event ledger that every system reads (in progress)
   • ✓Calendar, climate and seasons in the simulation; water that flows (in the build)
   • ○One work rule for the player and the colonists; the server on its own thread (in progress)
   • ✓Worlds with more than one biome, and flint and obsidian as the first edged tools (in the build)
   • ○Level of detail for objects, not only terrain (in progress)
   • ○The multiplayer structure, built in now so it ships without rework (in progress)
6. 0.1.6Planned

   Ecology

   Wildlife that moves and feeds because it is hungry, grazing that strips and regrows ground, and soil that tracks moisture and fertility by column through the seasons.

   • ○Crops that die to a frost (in progress)
   • ○Water that freezes, and rain that falls into pools (in progress)
   • ○Lava that is not for drinking (in progress)
   • ○Lakes, rivers and shores sized to the world (in progress)
   • ○Flowers and dyes (in progress)
7. 0.1.7Planned

   Physics and Vehicles

   Vehicles assembled from parts with mass, on wheels and gear-driven running gear, under the planet's own gravity. Carts and wagons first.

8. 0.1.8Planned

   Power and Signal

   Electricity, engines and fuel. Sensors, switches and logic gates, then control boxes of relays programmed in Relay, the colony's own programming language, with a ladder editor and a text editor.

9. 0.2Planned

   Flight

   The first rocket to orbit, on an orbital flight model over the planet's own gravity, and aerodynamics: lift, control surfaces and re-entry heating. Landing on other bodies, each with its own ground and biomes.

10. 0.3Planned

    Life

    Survival, health, moods and farming as full systems. Colonists age and die, and somebody inherits.

11. 0.4Planned

    Demo

    The first public build: one world, one expedition, about an hour of play from landing to flight.

12. 0.5Planned

    Alpha

    Feature complete for alpha: ten colonists, the core resources, farming, forestry, mining, hauling, construction, stockpiles, needs, a first enemy, combat, colony management and flight. Multiplayer ships here: up to eight players on one colony.

13. 0.7Planned

    Beta

    Content complete. Balance, performance, and a save format that stops changing.

14. 1.0Planned

    Release

    The full game.