It has been a rather quiet month, the reason for this is that I have taken a different development direction than the usual popping in new features and improvements of the game on demand. I have started to get a feeling that we really need to start summing things up and give the game a final version.
Therefore I have started working on a rather detailed to-do list with all the features that are left to add at a minimum before being able to call this game a full game. I have been searching the topics on the Dwelvers forum to see what has been requested and what is possible to add without having to modify the games development direction to much. I am not that naive that I think that I can foresee all the obstacles that may arise during the development, neither do I want to decide what specific feature, creatures or building should enter the game in half a year from now, but I should be able to say what it will be like in general and how long it should take to implement it.
I will have a prototype of the to-do list ready by the end of the month which I would love some suggestions on, what you do like and what you don't like. Before the end of the year we shall have an finished to-do list with a plan where Dwelvers is finished at the end of 2016. Then after Dwelvers is finished we will keep on adding DLC:s to the game.
Right now (besides from working on the to-do list) I am working on optimizing the code in the game. I want to move as much code from the game into xml files as possible, this is already done with the creatures, the items, the particles and parts of other stuffs as well. Now I want to get as much of the buildings code (mousetraps, rock, metalworks room etc.) into XML files as possible as well. This is so that the game will be easier to mod and also make it easier for me as a coder to keep on adding more content to the game without making the game more complex.
I do have more things planned for December than working on the to-do list, the game will keep being developed as usual, it is just that I sat the date for the to-do list to be finished a bit into the future so that it isn't rushed. It is very important that we get it right and that we don't take water over our heads, therefore your opinions will be extremely valuable for us when planning the future of Dwelvers!
Let me know what you think here below, I would love to hear your opinions on this letter :)