diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 34cc907f..6c747d3c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,26 @@ change type. Preview the next one with `ludic dev release --dry-run`.
 A released section may carry a hand-written summary paragraph above its groups
 (v0.2.0 has one); the generated bullets below it are not edited by hand.
 
+## v0.17.0 — 2026-09-16
+
+### Features
+
+- **Renderer switches stay out of shipped games** — every `R3D_*` environment switch in
+  `ludic.render3d` (debug views, feature kills, file writers, hardware fakes, the Windows
+  feature overrides) now goes through one gate: a headless build honours them as before, a
+  windowed build only when `R3D_DEV` is set to anything but `0`. See `docs/SHIPPING.md`.
+
+### Fixes
+
+- **A lake can be the water that mirrors the world** — a reflecting body is clipped to its
+  ellipse like any other unless it is an unbounded sea, so a map whose reflection belongs to
+  its lake no longer floods every hollow in the survey with that lake's level; and the
+  terrain's wet shore, forest and scree gates read the carved lake's line inside its outline
+  (`u_lake`), the rule the grass already used, so a lake above the sea keeps its wet bank and
+  no forest is painted down its bed.
+
+  `terrain_lake_carve(false)` keeps a lake's line, outline and shore but skips carving its
+  bed, for a height map that already carries a shaped one.
 ## v0.16.2 — 2026-09-15
 
 ### Fixes
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 201a22c8..c5523bd0 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.16.2
+0.17.0
diff --git a/changes/lake-water.md b/changes/lake-water.md
deleted file mode 100644
index c06a79a9..00000000
--- a/changes/lake-water.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-bump: patch
-type: fix
-**A lake can be the water that mirrors the world** — a reflecting body is clipped to its
-ellipse like any other unless it is an unbounded sea, so a map whose reflection belongs to
-its lake no longer floods every hollow in the survey with that lake's level; and the
-terrain's wet shore, forest and scree gates read the carved lake's line inside its outline
-(`u_lake`), the rule the grass already used, so a lake above the sea keeps its wet bank and
-no forest is painted down its bed.
-
-`terrain_lake_carve(false)` keeps a lake's line, outline and shore but skips carving its
-bed, for a height map that already carries a shaped one.
diff --git a/changes/render3d-dev-gate.md b/changes/render3d-dev-gate.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 16813323..00000000
--- a/changes/render3d-dev-gate.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-bump: minor
-type: feat
-**Renderer switches stay out of shipped games** — every `R3D_*` environment switch in
-`ludic.render3d` (debug views, feature kills, file writers, hardware fakes, the Windows
-feature overrides) now goes through one gate: a headless build honours them as before, a
-windowed build only when `R3D_DEV` is set to anything but `0`. See `docs/SHIPPING.md`.