Roadmap

Hello everyone.

I'm going to be doing some more work on Xana in the coming months, getting it ready for a full release. While I think the game jam version is quite good, I don't feel like it's quite good enough or complete enough to put a price tag on it. (To be clear, I will leave the game jam version as is and available for free.)

The first step towards that goal is this post. I need a plan. So, here's my big, unorganized list of things I want in the full release. This isn't set in stone, but I'd be happy to release the game once all these boxes are ticked.

• More levels, at least 100 in total. (The current game has 60 levels.) Not all 100 would be required to beat the game though.
• Rooms off the straight path between the start and end.
• A use for the star collectibles.
• The ability to move freely between rooms.
• A better level-select menu.
• A few more creature types.
• More than one ending. Now, the plan I have at the moment would have a standard ending, a secret ending and a completionist ending, and you'd pretty much need to get them in that order. (So no branching stories or anything like that.) Also, a more coherent story.
• A level editor and some way of importing/exporting/sharing levels. I'm undecided on whether these would be restricted to single levels or allow level sets.
• Improved graphics and animations. I'm pretty happy with the graphics overall, but there are definitely some rough spots.
• Some visual indication of what's going to happen if you cut a particular rope.
• Improved sound effects.
• Palette swapping a la Downwell.
• Screen transitions between rooms.
• Some safeties around the key bindings, e.g. don't allow Ctrl and W to both be bound for the web version.
• Controller support.
• Extra accessibility options, e.g. allow the Rope and Cut keys to be toggles instead of requiring them to be held, and allowing the text to be replaced with a non-pixelated version.
• An Android version.
• An in-game timer.

Besides those, there are a few ideas I'm less sure of. 

• Character selection. It wouldn't be too hard to implement, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth the extra graphics and interface work.
• Boss-type levels. That is, a few special levels with one-off mechanics or enemies. I really wanted to do this for the game jam but I couldn't come up with anything appropriate, and still can't. The game mechanics don't really lend themselves well to actually fighting bosses and there's not a ton of room in a screen for trying to dodge around them.
• An actual Gameboy version. I don't quite know if I can actually pull this off. Even if I can, I'm not sure of whether I should put off releasing the full version for it.
• More intuitive controls. While I really want to stick to controls that would actually be possible on a Gameboy, I also want the controls to be as easy to use as possible. Also, I just haven't been able to come up with anything better than what I've already got.
• Context-sensitive help. I really don't want an intrusive tutorial or a wall of text. Besides just being a poorer experience it would also make it harder to translate later if I want to do that eventually. (Also, I just like the wordless aesthetic.) That said, a system to offer some help text if you're stuck in specific situations might work.
• A bonus objective/achievement of not leaving any ropes behind. This is currently not possible as you can't collect a rope after you've just climbed onto a ledge. I haven't thought of a good way of making this work. Also, there's a chance that this would make the controls less intuitive, which would be a no-go.
• Other achievements. I don't really have many ideas here.

I have no idea how long all of this will take, and a giant list of long-term goals isn't really a great way to actually get much done, so I'll be back soon with my short term goals.