Can we have a roadmap?

I’m just asking because despite many changes( We get reaally great features: skill trees, pve, chisels, portals etc… ) boundless development seems really slow and it’s always better to know what to expect next…

Similar to this one: https://rust.facepunch.com/roadmap/ maybe?

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love the ide and it would be nice to see how close it is to new updates and more :slight_smile:

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As a player I love roadmaps because it gives you a visual reference as to when things are likely to arrive (even if they are massively inaccurate) but I don’t like it when I don’t have any influence on them.

Although we are not officially supporting a community roadmap, has anyone tried making a community Trello Board where you post your ideas and vote on things you want to see in Boundless? It would be useful for the developers to use this as a reference and see what the hot features are for the community.

Posts like these are great for generating feedback and getting the community talking about the game and sharing their thoughts, so anything to encourage this we are all for.

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I’m going to level with you, Luke. Roadmaps aren’t just for players. Roadmaps are extremely important for the devs too. I’m an IT consultant who’s been consulting on large projects for over a decade now. I also have a background in game development albeit at a smaller studio whose work primarily consisted of cranking out outsourced work (modeling, animation, texture mapping, UI programming) for larger studios. We did ship a couple small games though and I contributed in several different areas to both.

Without a roadmap, you can’t have a fixed scope and without fixed scope what you have is a team of talented and passionate developers (and you guys clearly are!) just iterating endlessly without ever delivering a finished product. The features you’ve introduced to Boundless to date are amazing but if you don’t lock in scope, you’re never going to ship this game. What you’ll end up with is a game rich in many different features but without any closure. It’ll always be that piece of software that’s “80%” done and has been as far back as anyone can remember.

Now, if your underlying plan is to purposely NOT ever leave Early Access and instead continue iterating on the game as a labor of love while your team is financially buoyed by the EA revenue and investment dollars, then that’s fine too as there are many games that essentially run with this model and then, at some point close their doors with a proverbial tip of the cap and an “it was fun” as they walk away from the project. It’s not ideal but it is a valid business model for Steam games if that’s your thing.

I hope it goes without saying, though, that the majority of Boundless players who have been around for a while wouldn’t be down with such a model and would thank you guys for what you’ve developed thus far and move on to another sandbox game. The community wants a roadmap. It doesn’t have to be overly detailed but it should provide a clear path illustrating how we’re going to go from today to the 1.0 release and potentially beyond. We can still be agile. It doesn’t have to be set in stone. There will still be times someone comes up with an idea (similar to how meteors were conceived - not part of the original plan but something someone came up with and you ran with it) but those ideas must be fit in without compromising the overall roadmap.

My 2c.

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Please know we have an internal road map which is what we are working towards although some things are likely to change. We haven’t shared it because it isn’t ready for the public.

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w-what about f-flying machines?

:smiley:

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Thanks, @luke-turbulenz. It’s relieving to hear you guys are developing to a roadmap even if that roadmap isn’t public yet. If I may, can you at least confirm that your internal roadmap to 1.0 loosely maps to the features you have listed on your homepage: http://playboundless.com/#features?

I wouldn’t mind PMing a public trello board; though I’m a bit concerned that it’d quickly devolve into a quagmire of conflicting ideas (even w/ diligent merging/organizing of tasks).

Have you seen other instances of public/community-managed trello boards that might be good templates?

Tell you what. I’ll get the ball rolling on this for you. :stuck_out_tongue:

_ https://trello.com/b/w3PvuO3w/boundless

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awesome! I’ll keep an eye on it

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Hmm are we supposed to add cards at that trello? Cause I think we currently can’t (tried adding one). Checked and it says “Only people added to the board can edit it”.

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On the wishlist one you can add new cards.

_ https://trello.com/b/S44FKdF9/boundless-community-roadmap-wishlist

There isn’t an option to enable a single column to be edited by the public, it’s all or nothing which is a shame because as @nevir said, it will just end up being a chaotic mess. It seems to make sense to have a board that is “moderated” and the other made “public”. That way we can let the public one flow into a chaotic mess and let you guys have fun with it. Then a group of admins can keep the the moderated one up to date. :slight_smile:

Message me if you want to be an admin.

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Nyessss. Is all I wanted to say, but I need to make this 10 characters, soooo…

Update:

Added the ability to become a member of a board so you can edit it.
For example, click here to become a member of the wishlist board.
Added voting so you can vote on particular items.

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Should decorative props be added in there somewhere?

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Yes pleeeeeeeeeez

How do we actually use trello, and make our points be seen?

I just revived my old Trello account, any chance I could have an invite to the community wishlist board please?
Edit: Same name.
Edit 2: Found the button!

Cheers,
-Eld

Add a card with your suggestion to the wishlist and vote for your favourite ones. Comment on others and provide references if you have any.

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Thx Mr developer