FilmstripStudio

Development roadmap

A focused path toward a complete beginner workflow.

Follow Filmstrip's development from its current RPG foundations toward a complete and beginner-friendly game-making workflow.

0.1 Complete

The Foundation

Version 0.1 established Filmstrip's first dependable editor-to-runtime workflow. Creators could build tile-based scenes, place and configure objects, connect areas, and test the result through isolated Play Mode. Major additions included:

  • Scene creation, loading, saving, and transitions
  • Object hierarchy and component Inspector
  • Player movement, collision, triggers, and interactions
  • Reusable object templates
  • Tilemap painting and layer management
  • Manual, smart-terrain, and animated tiles
  • Branching dialogue, Actions, and Conditions
  • Performance profiling and editor optimization
  • Versioned content and safer atomic saving
0.2 Complete

The RPG Foundation

Version 0.2 added the shared data and persistence systems that Filmstrip's RPG workflows build upon. Characters, Stats, Items, equipment, Currencies, Parties, and Conditions became reusable project content instead of scene-specific data. Major additions included:

  • Actor definitions and mutable Actor instances
  • Stats, resources, levels, experience, and derived values
  • Active Parties of one through eight members plus reserves
  • Items, consumables, equipment, key Items, and Currencies
  • Equipment Slots, compatibility rules, and modifiers
  • Shared inventory and transactional RPG state
  • Reusable RPG Actions and Conditions
  • Item and Currency pickups
  • Party and inventory debugging tools
  • Versioned new-game data and runtime save/load foundations
0.3 Complete

The Player-Facing RPG Workflow

Version 0.3 turned the RPG foundation into complete player-facing non-combat workflows. Players could manage the Party, inventory, equipment, Shops, Rewards, Quests, audio, and controls without creators building those interfaces by hand. Major additions included:

  • Themeable runtime menus and shared navigation
  • Party and character Status screens
  • Inventory, consumable use, and equipment management
  • Shops with buying and selling
  • Reward Bundles and Reward screens
  • Quest definitions, ordered Objectives, and the Quest Journal
  • Project-owned Music and Sound authoring
  • Scene music, concurrent sound playback, and fades
  • Remappable semantic keyboard controls
  • Consistent Filmstrip styling across editor tools
0.4 Complete

Turn-Based Combat

Version 0.4 added Filmstrip's first complete combat workflow. Turn-based battles reuse the same Actors, Stats, resources, inventory, equipment, Actions, Conditions, Rewards, and saves used during exploration. Major additions included:

  • Visual Ability and combat-effect authoring
  • Status Effects with durations, stacking, resistance, and immunity
  • Enemy Parties and reproducible weighted decisions
  • Encounter and Combat Reward definitions
  • Command selection, targeting, guarding, escape, victory, and defeat
  • Deterministic turn ordering for Parties of one through eight
  • Isolated battle snapshots and transactional outcome commits
  • In-progress battle save and load support
  • Responsive battle HUD, timeline, status, and feedback presentation
  • Project-owned portraits, battle sprites, icons, backgrounds, and VFX strips
  • Pixel-art reference resolution, integer scaling, and art-grid profiles
0.5 Complete

Authoring Reliability and Distribution

Version 0.5 turned Filmstrip from a repository-bound development tool into a safer project-based workflow that can create and package standalone Windows games. It focused on dependable editing, project management, recovery, player saves, and distribution. Major additions included:

  • Filmstrip project launcher with recent-project management
  • Transactional New Project creation and isolated project roots
  • Shared undo, redo, save checkpoints, and visible dirty state
  • Multi-selection, copy, paste, duplication, and bulk editing
  • Preview-first deletion, renaming, and reference-sensitive changes
  • Project Asset Browser with search, filters, dependencies, and unused assets
  • Safe asset moves and type-checked missing-reference repair
  • Up to 12 named player save slots with metadata and corrupt-slot refusal
  • Save Points, defeat recovery, scene recovery, and temporary-file cleanup
  • Build preflight and structured failure reports
  • Editor-free standalone Windows runtime and packaging workflow
  • Reproducible-build verification and deterministic clean-source export
  • Project-independent desktop editor builds and guarded updates
  • Managed Variables, RPG Tags, Trigger Actions, four-directional animation, and transition feedback
0.6 In Development

Connected World Authoring and Presentation

Version 0.6 will complete the reusable tools needed to build connected, persistent, and visually expressive RPG spaces. It strengthens the core exploration workflow without forcing farming, calendars, relationships, or real-time combat into every project. Planned work includes:

  • Loot tables for Encounters, containers, scripted Rewards, and custom Actions
  • Reusable chests and shared-storage transactions
  • Straightforward transactional recipes with fixed ingredients and outputs
  • Explicit persistent state for chests, switches, Encounters, and collectibles
  • Generic counters, timers, and cooldowns for Actions and Conditions
  • Project-wide world-state inspection
  • Visual scene-connection overview with exit and spawn validation
  • Broader project search across scenes, objects, Components, Actions, Conditions, tags, and RPG data
  • Improved reusable template and prefab-style workflows
  • Camera follow, bounds, zones, smoothing, snapping, and pixel-grid alignment
  • Fades, screen shake, flashes, tint, opacity, and authored transitions
  • Bounded repeated-sprite effects for dust, smoke, sparks, leaves, weather, and impacts
  • Scene ambient color and profiler-backed presentation limits
  • Basic point lighting as optional stretch work rather than a release blocker
0.7 Planned

Python Extensions and Project Customization

Version 0.7 will establish the supported path from Filmstrip's visual tools into focused project-local Python. Creators will be able to add game-specific behavior without editing the installed Filmstrip core or relying on an unrestricted plugin system. Planned work includes:

  • Project-local custom Components, Actions, and Conditions
  • Declarative visual fields for common values, IDs, registries, and assets
  • Custom fields displayed through the normal Inspector and authoring controls
  • Required-Component declarations and actionable dependency errors
  • Isolated extension load failures and clear diagnostics
  • Stable namespaced IDs, versions, and focused migration hooks
  • Declared extension state in runtime saves
  • Extension validation and inclusion in standalone builds
  • Separation of runtime extension code from editor-only code
  • A minimal official-module enablement and dependency boundary
  • A bounded Runtime UI Theme Editor
  • Project-defined semantic input Actions
  • Complete tutorials and one maintained example extension
0.8 Experimental

Network-Ready Combat and Experimental PvP

Version 0.8 will test whether Filmstrip's accepted turn-based combat can support a narrow peer-hosted workflow without changing the offline combat model or making offline games depend on networking. Deterministic combat and replay tools are required; playable PvP must pass a separate promotion gate. Planned work includes:

  • Serializable player commands with stable command IDs
  • Seeded and reproducible turn resolution
  • Authoritative snapshot and random-seed ownership
  • Battle-state hashes at synchronization boundaries
  • Deterministic match logs and replay inspection
  • Protocol, engine, project, content, and module compatibility checks
  • Two simulated peers in one process before network transport
  • Optional host-authoritative two-player localhost and LAN PvP
  • Temporary predefined teams, turn timers, surrender, timeout, and disconnect handling
  • Network Encounter authoring with discoverable host and join Actions
  • No networking initialization or service requirement for offline projects
  • Deferral to 1.1 if the playable transport does not pass its promotion gate
0.9 Planned

Creator Experience and Release Candidate

Version 0.9 will freeze the required 1.0 feature surface and make Filmstrip understandable, recoverable, documented, accessible, and dependable on supported Windows systems. No new gameplay or serialization family will begin during this milestone. Planned work includes:

  • Polished New Project onboarding and maintained starter content
  • Optional first-project checklist and project health summary
  • Searchable task-oriented documentation and in-editor help
  • References for Components, Actions, Conditions, project data, input, and extensions
  • Migration notes and one maintained reference game
  • Complete keyboard, mouse, and controller navigation
  • Runtime remapping, UI scaling, readable focus, text speed, volume, and effect controls
  • Whole-project validation across content, saves, extensions, modules, and packaging
  • Safe-mode startup and expanded recovery tooling
  • Defined performance budgets and repeatable profiling workflows
  • Long-session, high-DPI, offline, corrupted-data, and read-only-install testing
  • Clean-machine Windows 10 and Windows 11 build and launch testing
  • Release-candidate defect policy focused on data safety, migration, input, crashes, and packaging
1.0 Future

Stable Visual Turn-Based RPG Engine

Filmstrip Engine 1.0 will be the first stable release of the complete offline visual RPG workflow. Its project formats, supported Python extension contracts, minimal official-module boundary, player saves, and Windows packaging process will become documented product capabilities rather than moving pre-alpha experiments. The stable release is planned to include:

  • Connected tile-based scenes and reusable world objects
  • Collision, triggers, interactions, dialogue, Actions, and Conditions
  • Actors, Stats, resources, progression, and Parties of one through eight
  • Inventory, equipment, Currencies, Shops, Rewards, Quests, and audio
  • Offline party-based turn-based combat
  • Loot, storage, and straightforward crafting
  • Camera behavior, transitions, and bounded presentation effects
  • Player save-slot creation, loading, replacement, and deletion
  • Project-local Python Components, Actions, and Conditions
  • Supported official modules within a minimal compatibility boundary
  • Whole-project validation, diagnostics, safe persistence, and recovery
  • Reproducible editor-free standalone Windows builds
  • Complete keyboard, mouse, and controller workflows
  • Maintained documentation, reference content, performance guidance, and regression tests
  • Optional experimental PvP only if the separate 0.8 promotion gate succeeds
1.X Future

Post-1.0 Development Programs

Filmstrip 1.0 is intentionally focused on a dependable offline visual turn-based RPG workflow. Larger gameplay families and platform programs remain valid future directions, but they will receive their own complete development cycles instead of delaying the stable release. Potential post-1.0 directions include:

  • Networked battle completion, friend-oriented Internet play, reconnection, and cooperative raids
  • Localization with stable text IDs, language tables, formatting, and font validation
  • World simulation with clocks, calendars, seasons, schedules, relationships, and expanded crafting
  • A dedicated farming and town-life module
  • A separate real-time action-combat development program
  • Networked exploration and persistent online services
  • Additional operating-system backends
  • Isometric and alternate world projections
  • Advanced lighting, shaders, composition, and render-to-texture tools
  • External module distribution and a possible community marketplace
  • Tactical combat and other focused RPG modules