Roadmap to a public release: what does MateMate 1.0 need?

[testtest126]

The core loop is solid: engine play with hints/takebacks/review, rated 5+3 online play with clocks, draw offers, rematch, and a leaderboard — all tested and CI'd. The question is what stands between here and real players.

My candidate cut-line for 1.0:

Must have

• Public server deployment (Deploy chess-server publicly and point release builds at it #28) — nothing else matters without it
• Auth rate limiting & account hygiene (Rate-limit auth endpoints and clean up abandoned guest accounts #32) — day-one abuse surface
• Time-control selection (Selectable time controls (bullet / blitz / rapid) #13, in progress)
• Resume-in-progress-game UX (Show an active online game on the home screen (resume banner) #29)

Should have

• Sign in with Apple for account recovery (Sign in with Apple for account recovery #14) — guests losing ratings on device loss will sting
• Server-side history in the app (Show server-side game history (online games from any device) #30)
• Localization pipeline (Localize the app with a String Catalog #34)

Nice for 1.0

• Player profiles (Player profiles: tap a leaderboard row for record and recent games #33), JWT 5 migration (Migrate to vapor/jwt 5 (JWTKit 5) #21, in progress)

What's missing? What's mis-prioritized? Things deliberately not on the list: spectator mode, puzzles from your own blunders, iPad layout — all good 1.x candidates.