Hello everyone!
It's been a while since the last demo update so I wanted to give an update on what's been going on.
Beta Branch
If you missed it, the demo has a beta branch, which you can enable by right clicking the game in your steam library, and going to the Betas tab, and changing your Beta participation from None to beta.
My plan with the beta branch was to have more frequent updates before pushing them to the main branch. However due to a combination of awkward timing and poor planning on my part that hasn't happened. I was planning to push the current beta build to the main branch about a week after it was first released, but I decided to allow more time for testing after some reports of issues with the new body plan saving system (I believe the issues are mostly fixed now but please let me know if that's not the case). After that I had started adding some things to the game that I didn't want to reveal until the early access release which I'll talk about later in this post. To do a main branch build at this point I would have to go through and remove all the content and files that I want to keep secret, which I could do but it didn't seem worth the effort when it wouldn't be substantially different from the current beta build aside from some bug fixes and balance tweaks.
In hindsight I probably should have waited until after the release before trying to do a beta branch. As it is there will probably not be any public updates until the EA release. After that I do plan to return to more regular updates on the beta branch, hopefully at a pace of about once per week.
Upcoming Content
Despite the lack of updates I have been working on the game this whole time and there are some exciting new things in store for the EA version. The full main path has been completed, which includes 1 additional biome past the jungle, and a final boss that is very different from everything else in the game. There will also be a few new mutations, new cells types and new enemies for every biome.
Early Access
Now let's talk about early access. I had previously stated that I would not be doing an early access and would just be using the demo to test things up until the full release. However the scope of the game has increased since then, largely due to the excitement of all of you. Because of this I would like to continue working on the game for longer, instead of trying to keep a small scope and releasing quickly. The early access version already has more content than I was originally planning for the full game.
Demo Plans
The demo will stay up after release, although some content will be restricted and it might receive updates more slowly than the EA version. I know that might suck to hear since loosing access to something you used to get for free can feel worse than it never having it at all, but I do need to make sure that there is enough incentive for people to buy the full game.
Pricing
For United States Americans, the game will cost $19.99 during Early Access, other regions will initially follow Steam's default regional pricing. I have heard that Steam does not always get the regional pricing perfect, so if the game is unreasonably expensive in your country let me know and I'll look into more accurately normalizing the pricing for you.
New Trailer
- Kyler / kaliuresis