We talk a bit about it on the store page itself, but approach to Early Access releases differs so drastically from company to company, that we feel it's important to reiterate our own:
IT SHOULD WORK AS A STANDALONE PRODUCT
It's simple really. Early or not, this is a game you pay money for and it should be worth it. Our goal is to make each build feel like it could be a full release, albeit with more stuff to come.
Currently Bonfire has enough content for 20-30 hours (it's procedurally generated so there's some variance) before repetition starts kicking in. All of that fully playable in target quality.
EARLY ACCESS IS NOT ALPHA TESTS
Bonfire won't be released until it's polished enough to be enjoyable and stable. We don't want you to feel like you're paying us for the privilege of being our Quality Assurance.
Of course that doesn't mean there won't be any bugs. They should be on par with a normal release though.
THE GAME SHOULD STAY TRUE TO ITS VISION
This is crucial from the dev's perspective as Early Access games have a tendency to mutate instead of evolving. We don't want to fall into that trap.
We have a pretty clear vision for Bonfire and we want to stick to it. Player feedback will be critical for balance, additional content, and deciding development schedule, though.
SAVE FILES RESETS AREN'T NICE
Losing all progress after an update is frustrating. Bonfire save files are programmed (serialised) in a way that makes them relatively immune to changes, unless they're massive.
We can't guarantee this 100%, and there'll surely be moments where starting over is recommended, but we'll try to avoid forced resets as much as we can.
SO WHAT'S EXACTLY MISSING RIGHT NOW?
- Bonfire is pretty story-heavy for a roguelike, and while a significant chunk of the narrative is already in, there's no proper conclusion yet. (The game itself is endless either way)
- 5 heroes are missing from the planned roster of 10. There's quite a bit of content required for each (basic mechanics & assets, recruitment quest, story scenes, unique abilities, etc.) and they'll be added one by one in future updates.
- We want to have one more pillar of character customisation. Currently you can develop your heroes by training their attributes and discovering ability runes. A third mechanic is in the works.
- As can be expected, the end game is currently a bit lacking. The key component (an endless quest) is already in, but other top-tier challenges are yet to come. Probably in the early updates.
- This goes without saying, but there's plenty of smaller content that can be added and expanded. It's a proc-gen RPG. There's always a space for more monster types, items, quests, and all that.
Hopefully that should give you a general overview on what to expect and where we're coming from. If you have any questions or think we're forgetting something else, let us know in the comments. Cheers!
-Tom