Now that I'm wrapping up all the small tasks related to the launch, I figured I'd go ahead and post the immediate development roadmap for Overture Music Visualization. I thought a bit about using semantic versioning because it looks cool and it's fun, but I'm a solo dev and there are effectively two branches bundled into one (Desktop and VR), so I think we'll just stick to a simple number, name, and tag system. Here's the format and some definitions:
Update Number | Update Name | Tags
Update Number: Starting from 1 and increasing by 1 whenever a new update is applied (This Friday's update will be Update #1)
Update Name: Friendly name that provides a general synopsis of the update content (The Quality of Life Update, for example). Hotfixes will also be denoted here.
Update Tags: Simple tags used to denote whether the update applies to Desktop, VR, or both. For both, I'll probably use Desktop/VR just for clarity.
As for frequency of updates, my personal goal is to launch at least one update per month until it's ready to transition out of Early Access. I'm also going to be working across three broad categories of updates: content, optimization, and user experience. Content could be anything like new scenes, new effects, a broader range of configuration options for existing effects - basically anything that adds something substantive and new to the experience. Optimization is my umbrella term for both general performance and the expression of the different types of effects as they react to audio. User experience is where the quality of life stuff comes in: it can range from simple UI updates/additions to features related to utility (countdown timers, text labels, and other functionality useful for video creation or streaming).
Immediate Goals - New Utilities for Content Creators
On to the good stuff. Here's what on my radar for Update #1 coming in the first week of April 2019:
Desktop:
- Custom video import
- Text overlays
- Graphic overlays
- Countdown timer
- New UI elements to support the above features
VR:
- New effects in existing demo scene
- One new demo scene
Custom video import is one of those goals that came up about mid-way through the development cycle, but didn't make the cut for launch. I've already laid some of the groundwork for it and consider it to be a high-priority update, so that's getting my immediate focus now that launch is out of the way. Text overlays, graphical overlays, and a countdown timer for streams have also been suggested in both Steam reviews and elsewhere during development, so I'm moving those up the list with custom video import in order to provide a basic toolset for the users who'd like to use OMV to create content. Once that's established we'll have a basic framework geared toward content creation that can be further refined/developed in future updates.
General Short-Term Roadmap
Here's an incomplete list of things I plan to address but have no specific release timeframe:
- More graphics options - Something a little more robust than Low, Medium, and High.
- Effects refinement - There's some room for improvement in how some effects react to audio. This is more of a lifespan goal, as I'm always testing and applying refinements to the effects. Milestones will be denoted in update notes.
- Full VR release - I'd like to complete a comprehensive VR experience spanning 3-5 levels with full effects customization. The VR Demo will ultimately transition into a full VR mode.
- Experimental branch - A password-protected experimental branch with more abstract scenes and potential functions.
- Save states for effects - A comprehensive class for saving all effects options per scene that persists on game start/end and when transitioning from one scene to the next.
- Profiles and presets for effects - An extension of the effects save state that will add effects presets and custom user-created effects profiles that can be saved.
- Compatibility fixes where possible.
These are all things I'd like to get knocked out within the next six months. It's a pretty ambitious set of goals, and it's subject to change for any number of reasons, but that's where I'm at right now. I'm also looking forward to more community feedback on the current version and I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you'd like to see in Overture Music Visualization, so hit me up!
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Jtu3XXnMHcJMdd4cc4sig