Idle Exotics Development Roadmap

I don't think many people are watching this project, but in the spirit of keeping on task, I want to keep a development roadmap. That way I can keep track of what I have planned, and update the list as I finish stuff or discover new issues.

I'll separate the list into Rolling Updates, Beta Updates, and TBD Updates. Rolling Updates are things that I'll add to the alpha as I complete them - these should be more small quality of life improvements, probably not a lot of major features. Beta Updates will generally be larger in scale, and I'll hold onto those until the Beta release. TBD Updates are things that I know need to be done, but I don't have any time in particular planned out for adding them. Maybe as development continues, I'll add them to one category or another, but as of now, I'm not 100% sure what the priority is.

Rolling Updates:

    - Filter for the upgrades menu
    - Text size options in the Options Menu
    - Displaying Morph Names on Morph Discovery
    - Earnings boost based on discovered Morphs
    - Add a pause button to the breeding interface

Beta Updates:

    - Implement 4 new species
    - Morph collection viewer + achievements
    - Prestige system (limited roll out)
    - Save feature

TBD Updates:

    - New button icons
    - Title screen
    - Buy 5/10/50/100 option for incubators menu
    - Temporary boosts
    - Time Skips

I'm holding back on adding a save system, because I'm concerned that the alpha build is just adding too many things that would need to be recorded in a hypothetical save file, that it might invalidate saves between minor version updates. And, generally speaking, I think people are going to assume that their saves will function from one minor version to the next. While there will be more features coming after the initial release of the open beta, I think that most of those won't affect the save file.

Given that I've heard multiple people say that some players might prefer different playstyle options, I might prioritize "Temporary boosts" to somewhere in the alpha build. These boosts are supposed to function kind of like Golden Cookies in Cookie Clicker - they show up every once in a while, and if you're paying attention, you can click some object that gives you a temporary boost. I don't think the boosts I have in mind are exactly the same as Cookie Clicker. I'm definitely not planning on doing something as elaborate as the "Cookie Chain" or "Cookie Storm" effects from Cookie Clicker, but I hope this will make the game more enjoyable for players who prefer to take a more active role when playing an idle game.

The prestige system should have bonuses that should make the game more fun for "active players," but I would consider adding these bonuses as a bit of a stopgap. The boost to player earnings based on morph discovery would also possibly serve this purpose, as discovering more morphs by interacting with the breeding menu should also reward players for taking a more active role. This should also give an incentive to players in general to interact with the breeding system.

I will say, that I definitely have some more "active playstyle" options coming in the Beta version with the introduction of the Prestige System. I'm not sure if I'll keep the $1B price tag on prestige, though. At least, not without tweaking the numbers up a little. While the income/upgrade cost curves seem to be a lot smoother now, I'm not sure if $1B is a reasonable expectation to prestige. At least, not without more species and other more efficient ways to gather money.