A discussion on Early Access

MetalSoup

MetalSoup

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I've been burned by early access games at least twice. While I can see that there might be a need for it to help out indies, it's not something that I think I will ever support again myself. On the contrary, I prefer to wait for games to go on sale before I even consider buying them now.
 
Eugene said:
I've been burned by early access games at least twice. While I can see that there might be a need for it to help out indies, it's not something that I think I will ever support again myself. On the contrary, I prefer to wait for games to go on sale before I even consider buying them now.
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Which two games and what happened? I hope Rust and DayZ pull through like ARMA 3 did.
 
Stunt said:
Which two games and what happened? I hope Rust and DayZ pull through like ARMA 3 did.
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StarForge and Cortex Command. Luckily I didn't pay full price for Cortex Command.

StarForge is still in alpha, but they're making so little progress I'm doubtful if they are actually still working on it.

Cortex Command has actually been released, and it still feels like an alpha, and as far I know the developer has stopped supporting it.
 
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Personally I don't like the model, in the real world it's not appropriate to sell someone a car without seats, windows and wheels but it's ok to sell half a game I get that some guys need to cash injection but just this week there was a story of ubisoft selling a game on early access.

Personally I like the model where you put you money in and then sell something that you can be proud off, but if you make your money before you finish the project there is no incentive to complete it properly. My other issue is that in a normal model the investor gets his capital back and interest, what do you get here besides the same game everyone else gets. The discount covers the interest you lost holding the cash but otherwise I don't see much point, might as well keep your money and wait till release where you're not gambling.
 
The problem with Early Access, in my opinion, is that many of these guys have no idea how to manage their resources to ensure it lasts and many of them are hobby developers trying to develop a game in their spare time. This system should really only be open to people doing this full-time, not hobby developers.

I've been buying early access games back when they were exclusive to Desura's Alpha Funding section and out of dozens I've bought on there as well as Steam Early Access, only about 3 or 4 have either been finished or are making acceptable progress. The rest I've written off and will look at again in a few years' time, but I'm not holding thumbs that even 10% of them will ever be finished.

I think the Early Access thing is going to blow up in Steam's face this year as millions of people realise that games they've funded have made very little or almost no progress since last year.
 
I think it will depend in the future on the developers who are releasing the titles. If they have shown little to no progress on an alpha release in the past, i will be hesitant to buy from them again for early access.
 
Clive Woofer said:
The problem with Early Access, in my opinion, is that many of these guys have no idea how to manage their resources to ensure it lasts and many of them are hobby developers trying to develop a game in their spare time. This system should really only be open to people doing this full-time, not hobby developers.

I've been buying early access games back when they were exclusive to Desura's Alpha Funding section and out of dozens I've bought on there as well as Steam Early Access, only about 3 or 4 have either been finished or are making acceptable progress. The rest I've written off and will look at again in a few years' time, but I'm not holding thumbs that even 10% of them will ever be finished.

I think the Early Access thing is going to blow up in Steam's face this year as millions of people realise that games they've funded have made very little or almost no progress since last year.
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I honestly can't get behind committing money to a project without the certainty of my investment being returned. Agreed that Steam might face quite a storm once the collective light bulb clicks
 
With Rust, I feel like the developer has a good backing for me to trust them as Garry's Mod is great and was (is?) updated.
 
I've backed three games through Kickstarter, in fact one of them I backed twice! I backed Grim Dawn once through the pre-order system on their site and again during their Kickstarter and I don't regret it for a moment as the game is a lot of fun even if it is taking a long time to complete. The content is polished and the gameplay is fast & hard hitting with a nice crunchy feel to it. :)

The other two games I backed is Armikrog., a spiritual successor to The Neverhood and STASIS because the demo was damn impressive for something created by one guy right here in South Africa!
 
Its not like anyone is putting a gun to your head to buy a alpha build. I think its great, most reasonable people know there is a risk purchasing it. We all complain about big companies making bland games, this is great way to invest in a risky indie game under the hope they make something cool.
 
Its an interesting way of supporting the smaller developers, but i think many, including me, Worry about how many of these games will actually get finished... I agree with a lot of the guys, this should also only be available to full time developers, not hobbiests, and how do you prove this?
 
I've backed some of the SA developers to date, BROFORCE and Stasis.

I've stated in another thread about my views on early access in gaming. I do think that this can be implemented well, if the developers are willing to keep on supporting the project. Some of the early access games I've bought include Kerbal Space Program and Minecraft. Both games have had great support from the developers, and the community also has added a myriad of extras.

For early access games, it will come down to a game-for-game basis. I personally do not like the model, as it leaves too much uncertainty for the buyers, as you are not getting any reassurance or commitment from the developers to completed their project. They've already got your money, so why would they be motivated to stay with it? This is not true for all early access games though.
 
Grievous said:
Its not like anyone is putting a gun to your head to buy a alpha build. I think its great, most reasonable people know there is a risk purchasing it. We all complain about big companies making bland games, this is great way to invest in a risky indie game under the hope they make something cool.
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I stand firmly with you, I'm just hoping that it doesn't become a habit of completing the game after two years of incomplete builds. I support this method to assist in funds and actual support to the developer house in hope to speed up a final version release and to have input in how the game will evolve into the final product.

They better not screw with this...
 
If you understand the risk behind it its okay, if your struggling for money dont blow your monthly "game" allowance (if you have one) on an early access game. This release model is meant to be helping the developer with the production of the game. If you have the money and want to back the dev, then by all means do it, and understand its an Alpha.

The forums for these games are full of whiners saying things like "This game is broken i want my money back!", people who don't read the disclaimers before buying.

Its down to the consumer really, look how successful Kickstarter has become.

EDIT: Sometimes the devs can be greedy and stop working on the game once they have their money, look at how Cubeworld turned out.
 
I am now playing 4 Alpha games which i really hope for them to finish and polish the games nicely, but all you see lately is Alpha games which you need to pay for as well to start playing it.
 
Grievous said:
Its not like anyone is putting a gun to your head to buy a alpha build. I think its great, most reasonable people know there is a risk purchasing it. We all complain about big companies making bland games, this is great way to invest in a risky indie game under the hope they make something cool.
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To be fair that is the hope behind how the model should work. It's just that we all know these don;t always work out as advertised
 
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