alloystorm/publish-new-release

Overview

A full release publication touches seven areas:

1. Draft the English release notes from the CHANGELOG
2. Create four localized release note pages (JP, ZH, TW, KR)
3. Add the new release to _data/navigation.yml for all five nav sections
4. Update the homepage release card in all five index.md files
5. Use layout: release (not layout: single) for all release note pages
6. Prepare platform-specific release notes under notes/[version]/

The inputs you need before starting:

• The version string (e.g., 2026.4)
• The CHANGELOG content — either a file path or pasted inline

---

Step 1: Draft the English release notes

Read the existing most-recent release file (e.g., dancexr/releases/2026.3.md) to understand the writing style and structure.

Create dancexr/releases/[version].md with this exact front matter:

---
layout: release
title: Release [version]
locale: en-US
nav_links:
  - label: Intro
    url: /dancexr
  - label: Features
    url: /dancexr/features
  - label: Releases
    url: /dancexr/releases
  - label: Download
    url: /dancexr/download
---

No language links line in the body — the release layout renders this automatically.

Writing guidelines for the body:

• Organise content into named sections matching the CHANGELOG groups (new features, improvements, bug fixes).
• Translate internal/technical CHANGELOG language into user-facing prose. Explain what it means for the user, not how it was implemented.
• Use ## for top-level sections and ### for sub-sections.
• Keep bug fix entries concise — one line each, grouped under a single ### Bug Fixes section.
• American English, sentence case for headers.

---

Step 2: Create localized release note pages

For each of the four languages, create the corresponding file under the language prefix directory.

| Language | File path | locale | nav_links labels | nav_links URL prefix | |---|---|---|---|---| | Japanese | jp/dancexr/releases/[version].md | ja-JP | イントロ / 機能 / リリース / ダウンロード | /jp | | Simplified Chinese | zh/dancexr/releases/[version].md | zh-CN | 简介 / 功能 / 发布 / 下载 | /zh | | Traditional Chinese | tw/dancexr/releases/[version].md | zh-TW | 簡介 / 功能 / 發布 / 下載 | /tw | | Korean | kr/dancexr/releases/[version].md | ko-KR | 소개 / 기능 / 출시 / 다운로드 | /kr |

Front matter template for each locale (example for Japanese):

---
layout: release
title: リリース [version]
locale: ja-JP
nav_links:
  - label: イントロ
    url: /jp/dancexr
  - label: 機能
    url: /jp/dancexr/features
  - label: リリース
    url: /jp/dancexr/releases
  - label: ダウンロード
    url: /jp/dancexr/download
---

No language links line in the body.

Translate the full body content of the English release notes into each target language. Follow all translation guidelines from the translate-docs skill:

• Preserve Markdown structure exactly (same heading hierarchy, same bullet count).
• Never alter URLs.
• Keep code spans, Liquid tags, and HTML untouched.

---

Step 3: Update _data/navigation.yml

Six navigation sections must each have the new release inserted at the top of their 2026 children list. Use multi_replace_string_in_file to update all six in a single call.

| Section key | Title format | URL format | |---|---|---| | releases (main docs nav — inside the docs nav entry) | "[version]" | /dancexr/releases/[version] | | releases (standalone sidebar) | Release [version] | /dancexr/releases/[version] | | releases-zh | 发布 [version] | /zh/dancexr/releases/[version] | | releases-tw | 發布 [version] | /tw/dancexr/releases/[version] | | releases-jp | リリース [version] | /jp/dancexr/releases/[version] | | releases-kr | 출시 [version] | /kr/dancexr/releases/[version] |

The main docs nav entry is a short list under - title: Releases inside the docs: key. Insert the new entry as the first child there too, and remove any (Early Access) or similar suffixes from the previous release title at the same time.

---

Step 4: Update the homepage release card

Five index.md files each contain a <div class="release-card"> HTML block. Update all five in a single multi_replace_string_in_file call.

The block structure is:

<div class="release-card">
  <p class="release-version">[LATEST_LABEL] — [version]</p>
  <p class="release-headline">[MONTH_YEAR]</p>
  <div class="release-items">
    <div class="release-item">[highlight 1]</div>
    <div class="release-item">[highlight 2]</div>
    <div class="release-item">[highlight 3]</div>
    <div class="release-item">[highlight 4]</div>
  </div>
  <a href="/[locale-prefix]dancexr/releases/[version]" class="btn-ghost">[NOTES_LABEL]</a>
</div>

Pick 3–4 user-facing highlights from the release notes (not bug fixes). Keep each item to a short phrase (5–8 words).

Per-language labels:

| File | latest label | notes link label | |---|---|---| | dancexr/index.md | Latest | Full release notes | | jp/dancexr/index.md | 最新 | 完全なリリースノート | | zh/dancexr/index.md | 最新 | 完整版本说明 | | tw/dancexr/index.md | 最新 | 完整版本說明 | | kr/dancexr/index.md | 최신 | 전체 릴리스 노트 |

The English card has no locale prefix in the URL (/dancexr/releases/[version]). All others use their locale prefix (/jp/dancexr/releases/[version], etc.).

---

Constraints

• Never use layout: single for release note pages. Always use layout: release.
• Never include a language links line in the body of a release note page — the layout handles this.
• Never add toc: true or a sidebar: block — these are not used by layout: release.
• Never create release note pages for other locales as layout: single even if existing older pages use it — those are legacy.
• Always update all six navigation sections and all five homepage index files in the same session as creating the release notes.

---

Step 5: Prepare platform-specific release notes

Create a notes/[version]/ directory and generate all 7 files in it. Study notes/2026.3/ as the reference for format and tone.

5a — Google Play (google.txt)

Android audience only. Omit any feature that is Windows/VR/PC/DX12-exclusive (e.g. desktop VR mode, DX12, Steam-specific functionality). Focus on physics, character, and general simulation features that also run on Android.

Format: one short paragraph per language (≈500 characters), wrapped in language tags. All five languages in one file in this order:

<en-US>
…
</en-US>

<zh-CN>
…
</zh-CN>

<zh-TW>
…
</zh-TW>

<ja-JP>
…
</ja-JP>

<ko-KR>
…
</ko-KR>

Each paragraph ends with a localized link to the full release notes URL: https://vrstormlab.com/[locale-prefix]dancexr/releases/[version] (no prefix for English: https://vrstormlab.com/dancexr/releases/[version])

5b — itch.io (itchio.txt)

No language-specific pages on itch.io — brief, all languages in one plain-text file. One short paragraph per language, separated by ---. Each paragraph starts with DanceXR [version] as a heading and ends with a localized link to the full release notes. Keep each paragraph to 3–5 sentences maximum.

5c — Steam (5 separate XML files)

One XML file per language, named:

• steam_english.xml
• steam_japanese.xml
• steam_schinese.xml
• steam_tchinese.xml
• steam_korean.xml

Each file follows this exact XML structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<content>
    <string id="title">[Localised title]</string>
    <string id="subtitle">[Localised subtitle — key features, ≤120 chars]</string>
    <string id="summary">[Localised summary — 1-2 sentences, ≤300 chars]</string>
    <string id="body">[Localised body — 3-5 paragraphs of prose]

For full details, visit: [link text](https://vrstormlab.com/[locale]dancexr/releases/[version])</string>
</content>

Steam notes cover the full PC + VR feature set. The body should be engaging prose (not a bullet list), written as a product announcement. Escape & as & in XML attributes and content.

Per-language title formats: | File | Title format | |---|---| | steam_english.xml | DanceXR Version [version] Released | | steam_japanese.xml | DanceXR バージョン [version] をリリース | | steam_schinese.xml | DanceXR 版本 [version] 发布 | | steam_tchinese.xml | DanceXR 版本 [version] 發布 | | steam_korean.xml | DanceXR 버전 [version] 출시 |