— Release or patch notes · no account · free

A release notes generator, for software and games.

Featurevote has a free release notes generator. Paste what shipped, pick release notes or patch notes, and get clean notes your customers or players can read.

It follows the same writing rules as the AI in the Featurevote changelog editor. It keeps to what is in your notes, leaves out refactors, dependency bumps and ticket numbers, and writes in the language your notes are in.

— Prefer to write them yourself

A release notes template and a patch notes template.

Both in Markdown. Copy one and fill it in. The first also works as a changelog template.

Release notes template

A plain layout for a software release. Fill in the three sections and delete any you do not need.

Markdown

## Version 2.4.0

One line on what this release is about, for someone who has not read the last one.

### New
- What people can do now, in one sentence.
- Where they find it, if it is not obvious.

### Improved
- What got faster, simpler or clearer, and for whom.

### Fixed
- What went wrong before, in the words a customer would use.
- Who was affected, if it was not everyone.

Patch notes template

The sections players look for in a game patch, the same ones the patch notes generator above writes. Keep the numbers exact and say what you know is still broken.

Markdown

## Patch 1.2.1

One line on the focus of this patch.

### New
- A new item, level, mode or option, and what it does.

### Changes
- Something that works differently now, and why.

### Balance
- Weapon or ability, old value to new value. For example, shotgun damage 20 to 25.

### Bug fixes
- What was broken, in the words players used to report it.

### Known issues
- What is still broken, and whether there is a workaround.

— Five habits

How to write release notes people read.

Write for the customer.: Say what changed for them, not what you did in the code.
Lead with what they can do now.: Start each line with the outcome, then add where to find it.
Group by New, Improved and Fixed.: Three headings cover most releases, and people scan for the one they care about.
Leave out internal work.: Refactors, CI changes and dependency bumps belong in the commit log, unless a customer can notice the difference.
Keep numbers exact in patch notes.: Players compare builds. Write the old value and the new one, like 20 to 25.

— After you publish

Post it as a changelog and tell the people who asked for it.

On a Featurevote board, the changelog starts from the requests you marked done, and you can email the voters who left an email address. A published changelog can also go out to its subscribers and to a Discord channel.

Start for free How the changelog works

Free plan, no credit card.