If old version is a beta version, save games probably will not work.
If old version is a released version downloaded from this website, save games should work.
You did not say are you playing on Windows, Mac, Linux or Android. Some Android users seem to have had problems with save files when updating. Other platforms should work without issues, if updating is done properly. I play on Linux, install new version to a new directory tree, copy save files from old directory to new and continue playing. If you use the patch file, read the instructions, they are inside the zip in a README -file.
Note that developer recommended starting game from beginning for version 0.18, since there is new content available in the beginning of the game.