Chapter 5 - Remaining work and tentative release date

Right, so I've come to a point where it's time to talk release dates and remaining work. Let's start with the latter and work it out from there. Skip to the TLDR; if you're not interested in me droning away.

Current state
Chapter 5 is on the brink of content complete. That's the point where all the renders are done and the scenes are scripted out, etc., and you can basically play the update from end to end. It's the point with all the portraits filled in on the progress bar.

 With any luck I should hit that point somewhere this weekend (19th/20th). 

Release when?!
Yay, release in time for xmas?! Well, no. You see, there's still a few things to do. 

First, there's internal quality control, which is fancy speak for me playing the fudge out of it hopefully catching the most embarrassing typo's, logic bug, graphics glitches and render clipping. It's the wrench thingy in the update bar.

I make it a point not to skimp on it before handing it over for beta testing, because the beta testers are also some of the most loyal fans and deserve the best possible experience I can give them for their help in finding more issues. And if previous releases are anything to go on, there'll be plenty of those.

So, beta on xmas then? Well, it's not impossible. The beta will run for about a week, so that could also mean that it's also not impossible that the official release is around New Years' Eve. But I'll make sure to let you know as the date comes closer.

The beta btw is the three cogs thingies on the progress bar.

Why you hedging your bets, Naughty?
Well, quite frankly, it's all down to the wire this time round. 

Previous releases, I was on leave in one form or another, and that gave me a much more comfortable buffer to put in work, as I could plan work for working hours and pick up the inevitable disaster or two (or three) in overtime hours. 

This time round, that buffer isn't there, it's all evenings and weekends as I couldn't secure leave from my day job during this period. Without any buffers to cushion the blow, any hiccup will bump up the release dates for beta and official, and there's little to be done about it.

And what'll you be doing during the beta period?
Apart from handling beta feedback, which will hopefully be typos and such, I'll have to give the Android version some TLC, as it will probably hit the 2GB limit, and I need to come up with a way to handle somewhat heavier image compression (which should be fine, android screens tend to be a lot smaller).

The problem here is that I need to come up with a way to do it so it doesn't mess with my workflow, doesn't influence image quality for mac/pc, and I don't have to spend half a day redoing the trick every time I create an new android release. I got a few ideas, but they'll take a bit of time to implement.

I'll also be updating the galleries and such, which will not not ship with the beta, and doing any other odd thing that needs to be doing but I missed or skipped for the beta.

You can see the Android and galleries also have a little, currently grey, icon in the progress bar.

TLDR;
Long short:

• Beta release possibly around xmas.
• Official release possibly around New Years' Eve.
• Those dates are very tentative and there's a very good chance they'll shift.