The Future of Routine Patrol

Now that the jam is over, I’ve decided I’m going to continue development on Routine Patrol. The feedback I received could essentially be summed up as “this idea was clever and I’d like to see it develop further.” So, I’m doing just that.

My next immediate goal is to complete the scope that I had originally planned for the jam. The main thing I was missing from the submission was intruders and alerts; I have this partially implemented already. I will release the updated jam prototype with those features and some additional polish as version 0.2 in the next few days.

After that, I’m going to try to create a complete vertical slice of the game with new assets and refactored code. The vertical slice will be a particular area in what I expect will be the “Story Mode” of the full game. That release will be available as version 0.3.

Finally, I will attempt to complete the game by having a main story that takes place over several days, possibly a month. The exact length and content of the story mode is something I’m still figuring out. That will be the version 1.0 release.

I might make incremental releases between 0.3 and 1.0. I reserve the right to change this roadmap at any time. I also reserve the right to charge for future versions of the game, and to change the target platform away from the web if I so desire.

I will always keep the original jam submission version (0.1.0) and the associated revision of the Game Design Document available for free. I think that’s worthwhile for historical reasons.

That’s it for now.