Whenever a new significant build is released to our internal testing-team we also publish the pre-alpha patch notes in our announcement section, giving a brief insight to what is happening in terms of development of the game.
Since the beginning of April, here is some of the highlights:
- 4K reskin of Dungeon levels
- HD dirt, mud, blood and other decals
- Speech Bubbles to indicate feedback from Operators
- Operators now understand and respect Friendly Fire concept
- Improvements to Monster A.I.
- Special Ability order added
- Assault class received special ability Light Flare
- New and improved special effects
- Another 9 Monster-types added to the backlog
Why not already open up the Early Access?
Due to how the nature of Early Access has changed, partly because too many games go to Early Access way too early and others don't continue their development once released, we have determined that while we would like to go Early Access as soon as all the core systems are in place, this will not be viable.
Too many games have misused the trust of gamer's, leading to them having a lack of confidence about Indie games abilities to actually finish what they started. As such, most Early Access games from Indie devs these days will receive reviews based on what they offer upon first release and then many reviews are never updated. This means if a release isn't already offering a near-release quality package, the reputation is forever lost.
As such, while the title will still be an Early Access release, we will hold back on releasing it until we are even more further along the path towards the v1.0 - i.e. it will be released once it reaches Beta state, not Alpha state as previously predicted.
We understand that this may upset anyone that was hoping to get into the game very soon, but please understand that this is the best path for the game going forward. As an Indie-dev there are no second chances in having release-exposure for going public with a first release, no bought journalists that will push the game for months even when it is in an unfinished state, no huge marketing budget to dig from to cover for missing features or bugs.
I really want to know more about the game or be involved, what do I do?
We will continuously post updates as we go along here in the Steam forum, on reddit etc, and we will always be available to answer question here or on discord. In addition, once we hit Alpha phase, we will open the door to invite a select few to participate in closed Alpha testing (no pre-order of the game needed), and the best way to get selected is to be an active member of the community.