And we’re back! Our second edition of the developer blog gives you a sneak peak at our roadmap for creator-facing features. We have some powerful new tools for creators in the pipeline, and we’re excited to share a little bit of our plan. Creator tools aren’t the only thing we have cooking, it’s just our focus for today. Other plans will have to wait for their own time to shine [|=)]
I don’t remember seeing a previous roadmap...
That’s true! We haven’t shared roadmaps in the past. Instead we tend to say that some features are coming “SoonTM”. We aren’t trying to keep you in the dark - roadmaps simply don’t align with how we typically work at Rec Room. There are so many things we’d like to build and only a small team to tackle them. We constantly re-evaluate priorities, meaning our plans change a lot. This allows us to stay responsive to the needs of the community and gives ourselves flexibility to go after the best opportunities… but it also means it’s hard to promise a long term roadmap. If your plans change every couple of weeks, a roadmap is likely to be out of date shortly after sharing.
So why share a roadmap now?
Well, for one, creators have asked for a roadmap for a long time! We know you want more insight into our plans. All of the above is still true -- we value flexibility and will continually reevaluate priorities. At the same time, we want to share more info with you. We want you to hear about our plans early so you can help shape what we build.
We’ve reached a point where our creative tools are mature enough that we have confidence many of our big feature plans won’t (entirely) change. Now seems like the right time to try sharing a roadmap. So consider this an experiment - we’re going to share our plans in a way that gives you a look at what’s to come, while maintaining the flexibility we need to do our best work. If you like this view into our plans and it goes well, we’ll probably try this again in a few months. If not, we’ll learn from the first attempt and iterate to a better version -- that’s the Rec Room way.
Below is a look at some of our creator feature plans. Rather than claim a particular date for a given feature, we’ll use a very Rec Room approach and label things as “Very Soon” and “Kinda Soon”. It seems only appropriate that increments of SoonTM are adopted as our roadmap measuring stick -- this also corresponds with how we’re looking at the roadmap internally. Here’s what these terms mean:
Very SoonTM -- these features are likely to come out within a month. They are probably being worked on as you read this.
Kinda SoonTM -- these features are likely to come out within 1-3 months. This includes features we intend to work on next + larger scoped features that are actively being developed but need more time to land. If you see multiple features within this bucket, you can assume the ordering indicates the order in which we plan to implement them at this point.
A final reminder - this is only for creator-facing features. We have lots of other good stuff that won’t show up here. If something we’ve talked about in AMAs isn’t mentioned below that doesn’t mean it’s cancelled. Even within creation, we’re certain to add some features which aren’t on the roadmap. This only captures the large items you can plan on.
Without further ado, here’s our Creator Roadmap!
But what does all this mean?
There’s a bunch of exciting stuff coming up! Here’s a quick note about each category…
AI - AI is coming to creators … finally! This is a big investment and there are a bunch of ways we could handle it. We’re choosing to release AI in phases, with each phase representing a meaningful chunk of functionality for Creators. Phase 1 is in the “Very SoonTM” bucket which means, internally, we’re playing with versions of it right now. It’s rad. Expect to hear more on this in the next dev blog.
Circuits v2 - Circuits continue to be an amazing tool for creators, but you’re pushing the limits of what they can do. We want to shatter those limits and unlock even more creativity for you - that’s what “Circuits v2” is all about. Don’t worry, original circuits aren’t going away and all your awesome rooms will continue to work. You’ll just have an even more powerful tool to use. Will there be a blog post about this? No. There will be many. There’s tons of fun info to share. Expect the first one in about a month!
Communication tools - As a dev team, we love interacting with players and creators. It’s hugely rewarding to hear your thoughts on the game and ideas for making Rec Room even better. We want to make it easy for room creators to have those same kinds of conversations with their fans. Very SoonTM, players will be able to leave feedback for creators in their rooms. And Kinda SoonTM, creators will be able to better interact with their subscribers.
Creator clubhouse - Clubs is a brand new feature in our latest update. Leveraging the club system, we’re establishing an official creator club hosted by @Meriesa. It’s a place to socialize with other creators, share ideas, learn, and celebrate the awesome things you’re making in game. Expect this space to evolve over time and take advantage of new Clubs features as they are added.
Wrapping up…
We’re pumped about what’s ahead for creators - and we hope you are too! We can’t wait to get these features out to you and see what you do with them. It’s the most exciting time yet to be a creator in Rec Room.
If there’s a feature you want to know more about, let us know in the comments below. We’re planning out our future blog posts now and would love to hear what you’re most interested in! Thanks to everyone who left comments on the first article - we read them all. As a reminder, you can also reach out to us directly on social media (links below). And stay tuned to the developer blog for our next article, which will shed more light on our AI plans...