SpatialOS release policies

SDK releases

Versioning

SDK releases are categorised as major, minor or patch using standard semantic versioning (major.minor.patch):

• Major releases (for example: 11, 12) include new features and breaking changes for previously warned deprecations.

  For major releases, we provide an upgrade guide as well as release notes.

• Minor releases (for example: 11.1, 12.1) include new features and no breaking changes.

  Minor releases don’t require an upgrade guide, but we provide release notes.

• Patch releases (for example: 12.0.1, 12.0.2) contain only bug fixes and no breaking changes.

  Patch releases don’t require an upgrade guide. We typically provide release notes.

Support window

We support the most recent minor version of the most recent two major versions of SpatialOS (for example: 11.2 and 12.2).

This support includes:

• Runnability

  For projects built using a minor version, we support deploying until the later of:

  • 9 months after the minor version’s release
  • 3 months after the subsequent minor release

  We will support the last minor version of supported major versions indefinitely.

• Bug fixes

  We release bug fixes in patch releases on the most recent minor version of supported major versions.

• Documentation, tutorials and starter projects

  We maintain and update documentation, tutorial and starter projects for the most recent minor version of supported major versions.

  Older versions may remain hosted, but are frozen: we do not correct, update or republish them.

Breaking changes and deprecations

Minor versions of SpatialOS are backwards compatible with previous minor versions of the same major version.

This means that: for game code written against Improbable’s public APIs on a given minor version, you’ll be able to update to all subsequent minor versions (of the same major version) without code changes. For example, moving from 12.1 to 12.2, 12.3, 12.4…

Breaking changes (that is, non-backwards-compatible changes) only occur in major versions. We provide any necessary upgrade instructions in the accompanying upgrade guide or in release notes.

To prepare users for these changes, we will (whenever possible) deprecate the API at least one minor or major version before making the breaking change. We’ll announce deprecations in the release notes and/or in compilation warnings.

Exceptions

Though we strive not to, we do reserve the right to make out-of-policy releases, deprecations, or breaking changes due to issues such as security risks, or fixes with exceptional technical burden. We aim to provide migration paths from older products to new ones.

SpatialOS CLI releases

We release the SpatialOS CLI separately from the SDKs. When a new CLI version is available, you’ll see a message in the CLI saying that you can run spatial update to get the latest version.

We deprecate each SpatialOS CLI version 90 days after we release the next version. Once a version is deprecated, it’s possible that commands won’t work, or will behave unexpectedly. We recommend you update your CLI version as soon as you can when a new version is available.

Game engine support

The GDKs for Unreal and Unity only support one stable engine version at a time while they are in alpha. Please refer to each GDK’s setup documentation (Unreal/Unity) for the currently supported version.

Exceptions

Though we strive not to, we do reserve the right to make out-of-policy releases, deprecations, or breaking changes due to issues such as security risks, or fixes with exceptional technical burden.

Maturity stages

• Pre-alpha: Something that is feature incomplete. Or, part of an existing product that contains a new experiment for a feature. Not necessarily planned to become stable.

  Does not adhere to our bug fixing or breaking change policies. Only available to specific customers. Available for testing, but not recommended for public releases.

• Alpha: Feature incomplete and may have some significant bugs. Planned to become stable. APIs in this state will have the term alpha prominently displayed in their documentation. In some cases the term alpha also appears in their namespace, comments, or as a prefix to each method name.

  Does not adhere to our bug fixing or breaking change policies. Available for testing and development, but not recommended for public releases.

• Beta: Feature complete and potentially with some performance optimisation, but may still be slightly unstable. APIs in this state will have the term beta prominently displayed in their documentation. In some cases the term beta also appears in their namespace, comments, or as a prefix to each method name.

  Does not adhere to our bug fixing or breaking change policies. Available for development, but not recommended for public releases.

• Stable: A complete feature that meets the needs of a set of users for publicly released games. We plan to continue working on this.

• Deprecated: Not currently working on or planning to work on features or fixes. Could be removed permanently with notice.

  Not recommended for public releases.

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