Process
What version 0.9.1 really means
A 0.9 version number sounds like “nearly done”. It is not. Here is what the number stands for, what was tested and what no one has done yet.
Version 0.9.1 sounds like a game close to release. It is not, and this article says why, so that nobody has to guess.
What the number stands for
The version numbers follow the milestone plan of the development: 0.1.0 is the first playable slice, and every milestone after it added a block of content or infrastructure, up to version 0.9.0 with polish and release preparation. The number counts milestones. It does not measure how finished the game is, and a release date has not been announced.
What was checked
- 468 automated checks in the main headless test suite pass with no failures. They cover inventory, crafting, world generation and seeds, saving and loading, villages, animals, combat, caves and the rename.
- Separate suites cover multiplayer, accounts, the realm service, chat and trading, and a hostile client that sends thousands of malformed requests. Most pass.
- Two known failures. One network test of the underground layers has two failing checks, and it failed the same way before the rename. One social test failed once and passed on a rerun, so it is timing-dependent. Both are open.
- Frame times were measured in village, forest, cave and fight scenes on one Apple M2 Mac: 60 frames per second. That is one machine, not a promise.
What was not checked
- Nobody has played the game through by hand with a real mouse and keyboard. The automated checks and screenshot tours are not the same as playing.
- The music and sounds are generated by the project’s own tools and checked for pitch, loops and levels. No human has listened to them.
- Combat balance. The numbers are reasoned, not tuned.
- Notarisation. The app is signed ad hoc, and the notarisation script has never been run.
- Public servers. Multiplayer was tested on the developer’s computer and local network only.
What happens next
The list in the roadmap starts with exactly these items: playing it through by hand, and preparing a notarised release. Only after that does a public build become a question worth deciding. You will read about it in this journal.