v0.1.0 — Dec 14, 2023 — The World Awakens
First externally playable build. Ocean system, character creation, combat core, full terrain pipeline, locomotion, weather, inventory, and the foundations of Mordovia are live. Edna AI NPC system online with persistent memory and streaming dialogue. Quest framework operational. World market functional. This is the build that went to early testers and marks the transition from internal development to public-facing releases.
v0.0.95 — Nov 2023 — Release Candidate Stabilisation
Final stabilisation pass before the 0.1.0 milestone. Addressed remaining crash-on-disconnect issues in the QUIC transport layer. Inventory duplication edge case patched. Ocean foam particle Z-fighting resolved. Character creation flow polished — camera transitions, validation feedback, name availability checks all tightened up. Login server hardened against malformed JWT payloads.
v0.0.94 — Nov 2023 — Content Catalogue & Launcher Polish
Content catalogue system finalised — items, creatures, abilities, and recipes all indexed and queryable. Launcher auto-update pipeline validated end-to-end. Patch server manifest verification added (SHA-256 hash checks per file). Client-side loading screen progress reporting made accurate instead of estimated.
v0.0.93 — Oct 2023 — Edna Personality System
Major Edna milestone: NPC personality traits, speech styles, backstories, and canned greetings now drive LLM prompt construction. Conversation sessions persist across player reconnects. Moderation pipeline integrated — injection detection, player status checks. Streaming SSE responses replace the old request-response model. Mortimer and Barnaby are the first two LLM-enabled NPCs with full personality definitions.
v0.0.92 — Oct 2023 — Equipment Sets & Loadouts Foundation
Equipment set system scaffolded — items can now belong to named sets with stacking bonuses. Loadout save/restore framework in place (data layer only, no UI yet). Combat loadout slots defined in the data architecture. This lays the groundwork for the full loadout system coming in later builds.
v0.0.91 — Sep 2023 — Edna Core Architecture
Edna AI conversation engine initial integration. World server now forwards NPC chat channel messages to an external HTTP service. ConversationOrchestrator handles session lifecycle, memory retrieval, prompt building, and LLM streaming. NPC repository and session database schema created. Early prototype uses basic prompt templates — personality system not yet wired.
v0.0.90 — Sep 2023 — Quest Engine v2
Quest system rewritten from scratch. New YAML-driven quest definitions with multi-step objectives, branching conditions, and NPC-linked dialogue triggers. QuestRegistry populated at server startup from data files. Quest state synchronisation between server and client operational. Barnaby's first quest ("Barnaby's Special Ingredient") is the test case.
v0.0.88 — Aug 2023 — World Market Backend
Server-side order book implementation complete. Buy and sell orders with price-time priority matching. Price history tracking with configurable retention windows. Market data exposed via internal API for future client integration. Stress-tested with simulated order volumes up to 10,000 concurrent orders.
v0.0.85 — Jul 2023 — Weather System v1 Complete
Weather system marked as feature-complete for initial release. Rain, fog, overcast, and clear weather states with smooth transitions. Weather affects ambient lighting, particle density, and audio ambience. Server-authoritative weather state broadcast to all connected clients. Day/night cycle integrated with weather transitions.
v0.0.83 — Jun 2023 — Slot Inventory v1
Full slot-based inventory system operational. Server-authoritative item management with client-side prediction for responsiveness. Drag-and-drop UI, stack splitting, item tooltips with stat breakdowns. Inventory persistence via the three-tier storage pipeline (hot → Redis → Postgres). Equipment slots wired to character stats.
v0.0.80 — May 2023 — UI / HUD Framework
HUD framework built in Godot's Control system. Health, stamina, momentum bars. Minimap placeholder. Chat panel with channel tabs (Global, Local, Trade, Guild, Party, Whisper, System). NPC dialogue panel with typewriter text effect and quest option buttons. All UI elements theme-consistent with the dark Mordovia aesthetic.
v0.0.78 — Apr 2023 — Locomotion System Complete
Character locomotion finalised. Walk, run, sprint with stamina cost. Jump, fall, and landing animations. Swimming with breath meter. Third-person camera with collision avoidance, smooth follow, and zoom control. Camera-relative movement input. All animation state machines validated against the male character rig.
v0.0.75 — Mar 2023 — Ocean System v1
Ocean rendering pipeline complete. Multi-octave Gerstner wave simulation on GPU. Foam generation based on wave steepness and shoreline proximity. Bathymetry-aware wave behaviour near coastlines. Underwater fog and caustics. Surface water shader with refraction and reflection. Performance target: 60fps at 1080p with ocean visible.
v0.0.72 — Feb 2023 — Terrain Pipeline v1
Terrain system operational. 16km world with chunked LOD streaming. Heightmap-based terrain with GPU tessellation. Navmesh generation from terrain data — first successful pathfinding test on Tutorial Island. Terrain texturing with triplanar mapping and slope-based material blending. Collision mesh generation for physics.
v0.0.70 — Jan 2023 — Production Netcode Milestone
QUIC transport layer stable. Custom Rust GDExtension (dae_combat.dll) provides QuicClient class to Godot. TLS certificate validation working with Let's Encrypt certs. Connection handshake, authentication via JWT, and reliable/unreliable message channels all operational. Stress-tested with 50 concurrent connections. Binary protobuf serialisation for all game packets.
v0.0.68 — Dec 2022 — Quest System v1
Initial quest framework. Simple linear quest chains with talk, gather, and kill objectives. Quest log UI on client. Server-side quest state persistence. No branching, no NPC dialogue integration yet — quests are accepted/completed via simple interact prompts. Foundation for the v2 rewrite coming in 2023.
v0.0.65 — Nov 2022 — Game Content v1 Begins
First batch of game content entering the data pipeline. 200+ item definitions (weapons, armour, consumables, crafting materials). 50 creature definitions with stat blocks and loot tables. Crafting recipe framework with Smithing, Cooking, and Herbalism skill categories. All content defined in YAML and loaded by the world server at startup.
v0.0.62 — Oct 2022 — Data Architecture Milestone
Three-tier persistence architecture validated in production-like conditions. Hot tier (in-memory ECS) → warm tier (Redis with configurable flush intervals) → cold tier (PostgreSQL with batch writes). Checkpoint system: 30-second hot→warm, 300-second warm→cold. Priority flush for critical state changes (player death, trade completion). Connection pooling tuned.
v0.0.60 — Sep 2022 — World Server ECS
Entity Component System architecture implemented in Rust. Game loop running at 60Hz with deterministic tick scheduling. System pipeline: Input → PreSim → Simulation → PostSim → Network. Entity spawning, despawning, and interest-area management operational. NPC entities spawn from YAML definitions with server-assigned entity IDs.
v0.0.55 — Jul 2022 — Login Server v1
Standalone login server binary (Rust). Handles authentication via Supabase JWT validation. World list API — clients fetch available worlds with server address, port, and online status. Character creation, selection, and deletion endpoints. Character data persisted to PostgreSQL. TLS termination for the login endpoint.
v0.0.50 — May 2022 — Combat Loadouts Prototype
Early combat loadout system prototyped. Ability slots, weapon swap mechanics, and basic combo chaining. Three combat disciplines defined: Melee, Ranged, Magic. Skill tree data structures designed. Momentum resource system conceptualised — builds during combat, spent on finishers. All server-authoritative with client-side prediction for responsiveness.
v0.0.48 — Apr 2022 — Enemy Mesh & Animation Pipeline
Enemy visual pipeline established. First creature meshes imported into Godot — goblin variants with idle, walk, attack, and death animations. Animation state machine framework for AI-controlled entities. Blend trees for movement speed transitions. Placeholder LOD system for distant enemies. Rigging pipeline documented for future creature additions.
v0.0.45 — Feb 2022 — FX System Foundation
Particle and visual effects framework built. GPU particle system with configurable emitters, forces, and colour curves. Impact effects, ability cast visuals, environmental particles (dust, leaves, embers). Effect pooling for performance. Shader library for dissolve, glow, distortion, and trail effects. First combat abilities wired to VFX.
v0.0.42 — Jan 2022 — Foliage & World Objects Pipeline
Foliage rendering system operational. GPU instancing for grass, bushes, and tree billboards. Wind animation via vertex displacement shaders. Density falloff with distance for performance. World object placement pipeline — rocks, structures, props placed via editor and serialised to zone files. First pass on Tutorial Island environmental decoration.
v0.0.40 — Nov 2021 — QUIC Transport Layer
Replaced the prototype WebSocket transport with QUIC (UDP-based with TLS). Custom Rust implementation compiled as a Godot GDExtension. Reliable and unreliable message streams on a single connection. Connection migration support for network changes. Handshake includes server certificate validation against hostname. Measured 40% latency reduction vs. the old TCP path in local testing.
v0.0.38 — Oct 2021 — World Server Foundation
World server initial implementation in Rust. Basic game loop with fixed timestep. Player connection handling, authentication handshake, and session management. Entity position broadcasting to nearby players via interest-area queries. Configuration loaded from YAML. Redis integration for session state. First successful two-player movement sync test.
v0.0.35 — Aug 2021 — Game Music — First Compositions
Original soundtrack work begins. Main theme composed and recorded. Three ambient tracks for Tutorial Island (docks, forest, cave). Dynamic music system prototype — layers crossfade based on player location and combat state. Audio bus architecture set up in Godot with separate channels for music, SFX, ambient, and UI.
v0.0.32 — Jun 2021 — FX System & Combat Visuals Prototype
First combat visual effects prototyped. Melee swing trails, projectile particles, impact sparks. Basic ability indicators — ground circles for AoE targeting, directional cones for cleave attacks. All placeholder art but the rendering pipeline and timing system are validated. Performance profiling confirms GPU particle budget of 5,000 concurrent particles at target framerate.
v0.0.30 — Apr 2021 — Login Server Prototype
First login server prototype. Basic HTTP API for account authentication. Character list retrieval. World server registration and heartbeat monitoring. Database schema for player accounts, characters, and world state. Supabase integration for auth — email/password signup and JWT token issuance. SSL termination via reverse proxy.
v0.0.28 — Mar 2021 — Enemy AI Foundation
NPC and creature AI behaviour tree framework. Idle, patrol, chase, attack, and retreat states. Aggro radius and leash distance configurable per creature type. Pathfinding via navmesh queries. First goblin enemies functional on Tutorial Island — they patrol, detect players, chase, attack, and return to spawn if leashed. Damage numbers displayed client-side.
v0.0.25 — Jan 2021 — Foliage System Prototype
GPU-instanced foliage rendering proof of concept. 100,000+ grass blades at 60fps. Distance-based LOD transitions for trees. Wind simulation using Perlin noise displacement. Foliage placement tools integrated into the Godot editor for level designers. Collision culling — foliage hidden inside solid geometry. First application to Tutorial Island coastal zones.
v0.0.22 — Nov 2020 — Data Architecture Design
Three-tier storage architecture designed and prototyped. In-memory hot tier for active game state. Redis warm tier for session persistence and fast lookups. PostgreSQL cold tier for permanent storage and analytics. Flush pipeline with configurable intervals and priority queues. Connection pooling strategy defined. Schema versioning and migration tooling selected.
v0.0.20 — Sep 2020 — Game Music — Ambient Exploration
Sound design exploration phase. Ambient soundscapes recorded and processed — ocean waves, forest atmospherics, underground drips. Dynamic audio layering system designed — multiple stems that blend based on game state. Audio middleware evaluation. Decision to use Godot's native audio system with custom bus routing rather than external middleware.
v0.0.18 — Jul 2020 — Networking Prototype (WebSocket)
First multiplayer networking prototype using WebSocket transport. Client-server architecture with server-authoritative movement. Player position interpolation on the client. Basic chat system with global channel. Two players can connect, see each other, and move around a test scene. Latency compensation prototype. This transport will later be replaced by QUIC.
v0.0.15 — Apr 2020 — Terrain Rendering Prototype
Terrain rendering proof of concept in Godot. Heightmap loading, chunked streaming with LOD transitions. Basic texturing with splat maps. First 4km test terrain generated from real-world elevation data and hand-sculpted. Collision mesh working for character movement. Performance baseline established — targeting 60fps with 2km view distance.
v0.0.12 — Jan 2020 — Character Controller Prototype
Third-person character controller built in Godot. WASD movement with camera-relative input. Jump, gravity, ground detection. Capsule collision. Third-person camera with orbit, zoom, and collision avoidance. Sprint with placeholder stamina drain. Male character placeholder mesh with basic idle and run animations imported from Mixamo for testing.
v0.0.10 — Oct 2019 — Engine Selection & First Scene
Godot 4 selected as the game engine after evaluating Unity, Unreal, and Godot. Decision driven by open-source flexibility, GDExtension system for native Rust modules, and no per-seat licensing. First test scene created — a flat plane with a capsule character, directional light, and skybox. Project structure, folder conventions, and coding standards documented.
v0.0.08 — Jun 2019 — Lore Bible v2 & Region Design
Lore bible expanded to 40,000+ words. Mordovia's history, factions, major characters, and cosmology documented. Region breakdown finalised — Tutorial Island, The Shattered Coast, Goblin Stronghold, The Depths, and six additional planned zones. Each region has a design brief: terrain type, creature roster, resource distribution, quest themes, and visual mood board.
v0.0.05 — Feb 2019 — Concept Art & Visual Direction
Visual direction established. Dark, grounded fantasy with muted earth tones and selective colour accents. Concept art completed for: Tutorial Island docks, goblin infantry, player armour sets (cloth/leather/plate), key NPCs, and two boss creatures. UI style guide drafted — dark panels, warm gold accents, clean typography. These concepts will guide all asset production going forward.
v0.0.03 — Sep 2018 — Lore Bible v1
First draft of the Mordovia lore bible. World origin mythology, the Vestra Coda phenomenon, and the island prison setting. Core player fantasy defined: you are an exile, sent to a prison island that turned out to be much more than anyone expected. Three playable faction concepts sketched. Naming conventions for regions, creatures, and items established.
v0.0.01 — Jun 2018 — Project Inception
Vestra Coda project created. Initial design document outlines the vision: a player-driven sandbox MMO with deep skilling, meaningful combat, and a world that rewards exploration. Core pillars defined — no pay-to-win, no instanced content, persistent world, community-driven development. Team assembled. Development infrastructure set up — version control, task tracking, internal wiki.