DISCLAIMER: Roadmaps are an estimate at best. There's a non zero chance that features or content described here will not get into the game. I will try to keep this updated as best I can but please know there's always uncertainty and risk involved in trying to predict what will go into the game in the future.
I wanted to get some info out there about the high level direction of the game. I'm very happy to be in Early Access and the feedback loop with players is very strong. Within the first two weeks of the game being out I've introduced two medium sized patches that address two of the biggest problems I've heard about, ammo system and the controls, as well as dozens of minor fixes.
From here on out I want to aim at shipping one large patch roughly once a month. This roadmap will give you some ideas about what to expect. These updates will contain a mix of core loop updates and major feature updates. Major feature updates may not appear in every update but I hope to beef up the core loop updates when those are not present.
Constant Core Loop Updates
The core loop is pretty well established, in my opinion. You gather resources, protect civilians, upgrade your ship and repeat until you win or lose. They work well together to drive the pacing and the game play forward.
My plan is to make sure that every time I release a content update the core loop is sprinkled with new elements. Maybe there's a handful of new weapons and upgrades that shake up your previous strategy or maybe there's new events that make you think about how you are going to gather and protect or maybe new enemies show up that you have to learn and adapt to.
Major Feature Updates
Along side these core updates there are several key features I want to introduce during Early Access. Here's the a very high level description of what those are:
New Game Plus
I want to allow players to continue playing the game as long as they are still having fun. As players complete the base difficulty I want them to unlock successively more difficult modes for those ships. These will likely end up feeling similar to Slay the Spire or Hades, where each level of difficulty has a unique mechanic that augments how you approach the game.
Robust stats + Run History
Currently the game just doesn't really remember runs from one to the next. I want to start logging this info so that players can reflect on previous runs as well as know more in depth stats from run to run. I'd love to be able to show things like "most used weapons" to the player.
New Run Incentives
Power of Ten has a longer single run time than a lot of roguelites which makes dying later hard to take and can cause some players to stop entirely. While I don't think the game needs a full fleshed out meta progression system I do want to make it a bit easier to push through the early game (and more exciting). My plan for this is that when you arrive at a new region (filled the saved bar) you will unlock a small perk that you can pick up at the beginning of your next run thus giving you a small power bump that may help players clear that hurdle they've been trying to get past.
Story Book Ends
The story for the game is very light right now. I have a lot more in my mind but it's very high effort to do much more than write text content. I would like to make a couple of short pixel art cinematics to introduce and to wrap up the story after beating the final boss. These would likely be the last major feature implemented before 1.0.
That's it for now! That's the high level roadmap as of this moment. This does not mean development will abruptly halt once all these are complete but I'll be reevaluating at that time what else the game might need. As always let me know what you think Steam or Discord. I'm always reading and listening to your feedback.