Rogue Fable IV will progress through the same phases as III with an alpha phase leading to a web release to Kongregate, Armor Games, New Grounds etc. quickly followed by the start of Early Access on Steam and then 2-3 years of continuous development before a final release. I'm hoping to hit the following milestones:
Alpha: July 2023
Web Version: November 2023
Early Access: December 2023 (just in time for the Steam Winter Sales)
Final Release: December 2025 or 2026
The primary purpose of the web version is to act as the main marketing material for attracting new players. So the target audience for this version is either players who have never played any of the Rogue Fable games or else have only played the various web versions. The second purpose is to be a solid, well polished prototype of the final game. A small but representative vertical slice of the eventual final version. The web version will let me explore and refine the new ideas in a smaller, self contained context. It should lay a solid foundation that I can then build on with confidence.
So given these considerations I think its clear that adding a ton of new content or expanding the scope and structure of the game is not necessary and will actually be counter productive. While experienced, returning players may be someone disappointed by this, they are not really the target audience for this version. New players and players of only the previous web version will find an already overwhelming amount of content with just what's being carried over from the final version of Rogue Fable III.
With this in mind, development on the web version will focus on getting the new combat and level generation working. Using the existing content, scope and structure of Rogue Fable III I want to convert or at least push everything in these new directions. So the web version will be more like a remastering of Rogue Fable III according to the new design goals. The new ranked mode and the sub-zone system will be left for early access.
There will certainly be a bunch of new content for the web version (there already is) but it will exist to test and demonstrate the new concepts rather than to increase the scope of the game. Whenever possible I'll be working to convert existing content (sometimes radically so) rather than adding totally new stuff. If I run into problems converting some content or something just doesn't feel like its working according to the new design goals, I have no problem cutting it for the web version. The main goal here is just to get a very tight and polished little standalone game that will hopefully attract some new players to the Steam version while also acting as a test bed and proof of concept for the project as a whole.
If the web version is targeted towards new players then the Early Access version is targeted towards either veterans of the series returning from Rogue Fable III or else players coming over from the web version for the first time. With this in mind, the first thing I plan to work on and have ready for the initial launch will be the new ranked mode. The actual implementation of this is fairly straightforward and I have enough ideas for modifiers that I can quickly get a pretty big list of them working. These game wide modifiers are a bit of a 'cheap hack' to very quickly get a ton of variety and challenge implemented compared to the comparatively slow process of content creation. Given the short period of time between Web and EA release this is the fastest way I can see to immediately add some value to the Steam version and give returning players something fresh to play with.
With Early Access launching with ranked mode the roadmap for the next few years then should be quite straight forward. Using sub-zones as the basic unit of implementation with occasional longer breaks for a new zone or class, I'll begin a massive and sustained push to add new content. The idea is that I can take any zone, think up an interesting sub-zone with new monsters, bosses, items, terrain features, level generation or some special mechanics and implement it as a single chunk. This new sub-zone can then simply be inserted in rotation into the existing dungeon structure. Since each sub-zone is self contained I should be able to sustain a really steady pace, releasing a new sub-zone with all associated content every week or two. Over the course of the first year or so this should result in massive and rapid growth of the games scope.
I'll be maintaining the rough structure of the dungeon for as long as possible while focusing on this big content drive but eventually a critical mass will be achieved in which I can begin to branch out the dungeon and feather out the edges with side zones. The idea is that I'll wait until there are actually enough sub-zones and special levels rotating on the linear path of a zone before branching it out. While there will obviously be tons of final polish and balancing work, and new content can pretty much be added indefinitely, arriving at this final dungeon structure will essentially complete the project.