The new Slay the Spire 2 roadmap has no dates: "Exacting deadlines produce sloppy, uninspired work"

A new Slay the Spire 2 roadmap gives us a fresh look at the high-priority updates that Mega Crit is working on, but studio co-founder Casey Yano is eager to avoid making any promises of specific timeframes. It’s been a little over a month since the roguelike deckbuilder sequel exploded onto the scene, immediately becoming an overnight sensation in the manner deserved of a follow-up to a game that helped build the very foundations of the genre. On the cards are alternate acts, a new character, and experimental game modes, but when they’ll arrive remains a deliberate mystery for now.

In the April ‘Neowsletter,’ Yano says that most of the development work on Slay the Spire 2 since launch has been bug fixing, reworks and balancing, and visual polishing. After weeks of testing via the beta branch, the majority of that work has just gone live for all players. “The road to version 1.0 is long but we’re hoping to get back on track to some bigger chunks of content as we enter the warmer months,” Yano continues. “Our Early Access disclaimer is rather vague, so I felt that something a bit more official and recent would be nice to read.”

The roadmap Yano offers is more of a checklist, with no specific dates. The reason for this is simple, he explains: “It’s not what works for us. Mega Crit is a small team where each member understands their responsibilities, knows everyone else, and I try my best to ensure that we work at a healthy pace.” He says the team takes time each week to evaluate the tasks at hand and determine what would be “most impactful” to work on.

“It’s not the most organized method,” he admits, “but this allows spontaneous experimentation like the dialogues you have with the Ancients or the existence of a Room Full of Cheese. We won’t massively expand the size of the studio to finish the game faster. Exacting deadlines produce sloppy, uninspired work, and I don’t want Sloppy Spire 2. I want Slay the Spire 2.” That’s an approach I’m very happy to support, especially given how robust what’s currently on offer already is.

The current list starts with new features: Steam Workshop support, more languages, The Bestiary (a compendium of the various enemies), and experimental game modes. Yano has previously teased some of these, which include a “competitive” variant, one for players with less time, and some sort of multiplayer option focused on social interaction.

Then there’s new content, which he lists (in the following order) as an alternate Act Two, new character, alternate Act Three, and finally more cards, events, relics, and potions. That suggests a rough prioritization to me, although given Mega Crit’s flexible approach to development, there’s naturally the possibility that this will change in response to what makes the most sense, or what players are most excited for.

Yano also reels off the standard ongoing tasks of bug fixes, compatibility and performance improvements, continued balancing, and quality-of-life features. He then promises “more silly voices” and “less silly placeholder art,” although I’d like to take this moment to personally request a toggle that lets us turn all the placeholders back on if we want to. They’re too good to be lost forever.

Looking “further off in the future,” the big bullet point is naturally what Yano refers to as “‘True Victory’ and everything that comes with it.” Much like its predecessor’s early days, runs in Slay the Spire 2 don’t end with a decisive win – arguably quite the reverse. You’re forced to suffer an unavoidable demise at the hands of The Architect, afforded little more than a pithy line or two in his direction before you fall. Eventually that will change, and we can also look forward to Steam Achievements, Trading Cards, and ports to other platforms.

Yano responds to a couple of other requests in a question and answer section. An endless mode will “probably not” happen, he says: “The deckbuilding gets less exciting the longer a run goes on… I think games like Balatro do a better job due to infinite strategies being possible less often. The scaling of their game’s mechanics feels more natural, whereas it’s not really the case for us. Still, you never know how inspiration strikes. Maybe a modder will think of a way to make it work.”

He says the prospect of online matchmaking for multiplayer “is a bit up in the air at this time,” noting that the potential to pair with strangers “brings a whole host of headaches that a smaller team wouldn’t want to deal with… but maybe we’re being too stringent.” He says it will continue to be a consideration, and suggests that in-game text chat could be implemented. “I don’t think we’ll do voice. Unless something horrible happens to Discord.”

To round out this month’s Neowsletter, Community Manager Demi Montes offers some fun stats from the approximately 145 million runs taken by Slay the Spire 2 players so far. Only 44% of those who find the Lantern Key fight to keep it for themselves, with 56% returning it to the knight that claims to be the owner. Of those who take the key to its destination, 88% free War Historian Repy, while 12% abandon him in favor of opening a chest.

63% of players who find themselves in the Room Full of Cheese are compelled to gorge on it and take new cards, leaving only 37% with the patience to find The Chosen Cheese that gradually climbs your maximum health upwards over the remainder of the run. Much more shockingly, 49% of players in the Byrdonis Nest choose to eat the Byrdonis Egg for some max HP rather than hatching it into a Byrdpip companion. That’s a truly monstrous decision I don’t think I could ever select, so I’m shocked that almost half of you do it.

The rest of the post includes some rather excellent multiplayer map drawings submitted by the community. Yano reminds players that, while there are no fixed timelines, “beta patches release at a much more frequent cadence than main branch patches.” If you like to stay on the cutting edge, joining the beta branch is the way to do so. Simply right-click the game in your Steam library, head to the properties menu, navigate to ‘game demos and betas,’ and flip across to the experimental testing branch.

That’s all for this month’s update from Mega Crit. Yano thanks players for their continued feedback, and notes, “the in-game feedback tool [accessed by pressing F2] gives us more data than emails and meme posts (as funny as the latter may be).” Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to give my Byrdpip a big hug. You’re safe with me, friend.