0.6.9Y20 release

[rmtew]

We should do a 0.6.9Y20 release hosted on Github. I suspect we should limit the sole requirement to be that x64 is stable enough that we feel good about releasing it. The only real bug we have encountered so far that would have been game-breaking due to compiler changes (not bad Incursion code) was #16. Ideally we can find some players with more skill than me to give it a solid play.

I've mailed Julian's old google groups mailing list.

Core requirements:

• [ ] #20
• [x] #27
• [ ] Build process should produce a Release archive for players. Old releases were targeted at older platform SDKs in order to work on things like Windows XP. What are the repercussions of using the latest platform SDK?
• [ ] Build process should produce a Debug archive for developers to grab, run and attach VS to to load player saves with no extra work. The old Debug releases for 0.6.9Y19 were an example of this, but are problematic due to VS claiming source code differences.
• [ ] Sufficient play testing of fixes and changes to ensure no regressions are introduced.
• [ ] Sufficient play testing to ensure x64 is safe to release given all past releases have been Win32.
• [ ] As soon as possible with minimal changes. A primary goal is to get a starting point to iterate on.

Unresolved:

• [ ] Work out what minidumps need. Release pdbs?

[HexDecimal]

When would you consider it stable?

[HexDecimal]

For me the most glaring issue is the bad serialization code. Followed by a lot of very suspicious memory access. But these don't really prevent anyone from playing the game.

[rmtew]

We expect crashes because we know they are there, just hopefully less with each past release.

I think there's probably a minimal checklist that establishes a low barrier:

• A player should play maybe three levels exploring each level to a decent amount.
• A player should try spells.
• A player should try a range of commands.

It should even be possible to parse the logs and collate what actions and abilities have been tried with simple parsing. Or more likely scan them and search for keywords going the easy route.

[rmtew]

We could always just release a 0.6.9Y20 and call it a pre-release, crashes be damned. Then announce it.