Roadmap
I'm organising Cavey's development into four distinct phases with clear criteria. I'm making them public so that you can follow along with development progress, too.
While dates are subject to change, I'm reasonably confident in any dates I publicly have shared here.
Pre-alpha (2024 - 2026)
Ensuring that the Cavey Engine is a smooth and reliable foundation to build gameplay systems on top of.
No gameplay is present at this stage. Validation on the Steam Deck OLED is being performed to ensure that the engine can achieve sufficient throughput on the target hardware and meet framerate targets.
Alpha (2026 - ???)
Engine foundations have been established. Performance target has been validated and is being monitored.
Gameplay development begins with a focus on core mechanics and content, and remaining engine systems are fleshed out to help support them. Feature implementations may be buggy or incorrect.
Closed testing begins with privately distributed builds on Patreon. Builds are not yet playable end-to-end. Cavey is available for wishlisting on Steam.
Beta (??? - ???)
Essential gameplay loops are in place and a vertical slice of the game is playable end-to-end. Engine and performance work has broadly concluded and all forward progress is polish, content, and bug-fixing.
The game is ready to be presented to a wider audience. Public demo of Cavey is released, while private builds continue to be distributed on Patreon.
Release (??? - ???)
Gameplay design is complete and represents the full vision of what I wanted Cavey to be. All major bugs are fixed and Cavey meets the quality bar on the target hardware.
Cavey is released on Steam as a one-time purchase. The Patreon testing program is concluded.