Hello, and welcome to the 9th progress update of Baldi's Fun New School Ultimate! Since it is the end of the year, I've decided to do this progress update a little differently. This will be an end of year recap for BFNSU detailing what milestones have been passed during 2023, along with a look at what is planned to come in the future for this project. I hope you'll enjoy hearing what I have to say, and now it's progress update time!

2023 Version Recap

This was the first year that public versions of BFNSU were released, starting with the April Test Build and ending with the final Alpha update, V0.2.5b. During that time, a total of 10 public versions were released from April to November. Here's a recap of each of those versions, such as when they were released, and what their major inclusions were.

• Fake April Test Build (Released 04/01/2023): Was an April Fools version.
• Real April Test Build (Released 04/29/2023): Was the first real public version released.
• V0.1.7/May Test Build (Released 05/30/2023): Added 2 cutscenes, Floor 2 of Story Mode, and the Floor Customizer.
  
• V0.1.7b (Released 06/05/2023): Fixed some bugs, and added another example floor to the Floor Customizer.
  
• V0.1.7c (Released 06/12/2023): Bug fixes, more Floor Customizer improvements, and the ability to view the changelog in-game.
  
• V0.2.0/Alpha 6 Part 1 (Released 07/24/2023): Added a player selection screen, Random Mode, and 5 unlockable achievements.
  
• V0.2.1 (Released 08/05/2023): Added the first in-game event, which celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Baldi's Fun New School Remastered and was originally going to end on August 12th.
  
• V0.2.2/Alpha 6 Part 1.5 (Released 08/12/2023): Improved the event, and moved it's end date to August 15th.
  
• V0.2.5/Alpha 6 Part 2 (Released 09/05/2023): Added Floor 3 of Story Mode, and 3 more schoolhouses to Random Mode.
  
• V0.2.5b (Released 11/19/2023): Was a revision to the V0.2.5 update, and was also the final Alpha update.
  

2023 Milestone Recap

Several milestones were also surpassed during the year on the project's download page. Those include:

• Surpassing 400,000 views.
• Surpassing 60,000 downloads.
• Surpassing 160,000 browser plays.
• BFNSU being added to over 1,400 collections on itch.

And the project's official YouTube channel reaching 950+ subscribers. So in only a year, a lot of growth has happened!

What's Coming In 2024?

Before I end off this progress update, I would like to briefly discuss some plans I have for the project in 2024. First of all, BFNSU will enter Beta with the release of the Beta 1 update, which as I've mentioned before, will bring a lot of improvements and changes to the project. As I've shared in my release plans (an image of it is included below for anyone who has not seen it yet), this version will not be released until sometime after the full version of Five Nights At Baldi's Redone has been released, which is planned to happen in March of 2024.

Also, I've been thinking about releasing the project as a free to play game on Steam at some point, and if this does end up happening, that would likely occur sometime next year, after the completed 1.0 version has been released. Before then, I might release a different project I've also been working on to Steam so I can get used to how the publishing process works for Steam games, as I'm not sure exactly how strict the approval process is.

Also, something that I've thought about doing is releasing a digital manual of BFNSU once the project has been completed. This would include information about content in BFNSU such as the characters, levels, and more. As well as some tutorials, such as how to create a custom floor in the Floor Builder, along with some tips. So, next year should end up being an even better year for Baldi's Fun New School Ultimate!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this progress update, and thanks to everyone who has contributed, given suggestions, and has helped me out with the development of Baldi's Fun New School Ultimate. See you in the next one, which I'll be posting sometime during Spring of 2024 (likely at the end of April)!