This is actually kinda realistic, unlike the people still saying it’s going to come on Unturned’s anniversary in a few days from now. If we’re looking at November to December of 2018 for the first public beta, we’d see something like this:
July
- Early July: Road-tripping out to PEI to visit family.
- Mid July: Looking for an apartment in Calgary.
- Late July: Timed curated map for Unturned 3. (Most likely Carpat.)
- Late July: July 2018 Workshop Crate #5. (Probably, if not new Stockpile items.)
August
- Early August: Moving day, and unpacking!
- Early August: Forum post saying he’s excited to be back, and probably hinting at what’s coming next.
- Early August to Mid August: Server Administration (99.99% sure this is happening before anything else.)
- Mid August: Server Queue
- Mid August to Late August: Devlog #013, showing off the far superior server systems he has wanted to put in place.
- Late August: Spectating
September
- Late August to Early September: Devlog #014, with a short video that demonstrates the spectating feature.
- Early September: Steam Announcements
- Early September to Mid September: Steam Server Browser
- Mid September: Steam Lobbies
- Mid September to Late September: Devlog #015, showing off the server browser and lobbying system, likely asking for feedback on what else we’d like to see shown on the server browser. He’d probably end by saying that a new curated map is coming out soon, so for the next week he’s going to be multitasking between Unturned and Unturned II.
- Late September: New (timed?) curated map for Unturned 3. (Probably Rio de Janeiro at this point? France’s development time might end up taking two years at this rate. If not Rio de Janeiro, probably the British Isles instead.)
October
- Late September to Early October: Mod Downloading
- Mid October: October 2018 Workshop Crate #6. (Probably, if not new Stockpile items.)
- Every Nightmare Until Late October: Turned
November
- Late October to Early November: Halloween Event for Unturned 3.
- Early November: Devlog #016, showing off the first of the Turned, alongside some possible concept art if Nelson is feeling crazy enough to have gotten some made for the game. End by finally giving more news on the secret project regarding Unturned, just because it coincidentally seemed to line up with this blog post.
- Early November to Mid November: Savedata (Possibly done earlier.)
- Early November to Mid November: Second closed beta immediately after Savedata, if not earlier?
- Mid November to Late November: Replays
December
- Late November to Early December: Devlog #017, showing off the replay feature with a short video, and then a wall of text on the improved save systems.
- Late November to Early December: Most likely a public beta at this point.
- Mid December to Late December: Festive Event for Unturned 3.
This is under the assumption that Nelson does not intend to finish adding the game’s survival mechanics until after the first public beta is released.
If we were to guess estimate a first quarter 2019 date, I’m not sure if that would even include survival mechanics though, it might just string out the stuff in August and September a bit, and maybe the Turned too.
Addendum: Replays might actually happen fairly sooner than I’ve listed, around September possibly (so it can get integrated with all the other server-related stuff).
I was also pretty lenient on the amount of Devlogs, so maybe throw in another or two wherever you like. Possibly another obligatory set of Stockpile items.
And then a couple of minor things you can throw in for July/August. Jet-lag, forum stuff, wiki stuff, etc.
Second addendum: forgot that this was the reason I made the first addendum, but modding tools should be released before the first open beta.