Why Early Access?

“TLDR: Huckleberry Fields Forever is lots of fun already, and Early Access will make it even better. The game has a ton of content, and Early Access is a great opportunity to polish and expand it. Today, the main story takes around 12-15 hours, but playtime can be much longer. The price will likely increase after Early Access. We will partner with the community to refine existing content and add even more cool stuff.

Full version:

Early Access is a fantastic opportunity to share what is already a pretty fun game with the Steam community, gather feedback, refine it, and turn it into something even better.


Huckleberry Fields Forever has been in development since 2010 (not a typo) and has been play-tested extensively--mostly by our kids and their friends. The game has been refined again and again based on their feedback. Early Access is a natural evolution of that development process. The Steam community (that's you) is loaded with experienced players whose expertise and perspectives are invaluable. We are excited to work closely with you to make a good game even better based on all of your feedback, suggestions, and ideas.

The game is currently in Beta, which means that it is mostly feature-complete and relatively bug-free. The primary goal is to refine, polish, and expand what is already there. Nevertheless, some larger things may change or occasionally break.

We're excited to take this next step with you, and we look forward to all of your suggestions, complaints, bug reports, and high-fives.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Huckleberry Fields Forever will be in Early Access until it's ready, hopefully no more than 12 months. Then again, the game has been in development since 2010, so who knows.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The game is already fully playable and full of content. Our primary goal for Early Access is to refine, polish, and expand what is already there.

A few things we know we want to improve:

• Add more content to the level generator. Levels are assembled from predefined "chunks", and we'd like to grow the number of chunks 2x-3x.
  
• End-game content. After the main story, you can keep playing and solving cases, but there is little incentive to do so. We're looking for ideas for how to make that more fun.
  
• Balance the in-game economy. There are 80+ items to buy and collect. We want to make sure that they are not too easy to get, but also not too hard.
  
• Balance the difficulty. The game is not intended to be difficult, but it should get progressively harder over time.
  
• Weapon unlocks. The cadence at which new weapons are unlocked may need to be adjusted.

The direction Huckleberry Fields Forever evolves will depend largely on community feedback. If you don't think something is awesome, we want to know about it.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“On day one of Early Access, Huckleberry Fields Forever already has the following fun features:

• Millions of randomly generated cases to solve
  
• 1 main story that spans 12 cases, each of which takes about 1 hour to complete
  
• 50+ real-world locations
  
• 300+ real-world background textures
  
• 24 unlockable weapons (akin to magic mushrooms and fire flowers)
  
• 18 weapon upgrades
  
• 18 shoes (equippable gear with special powers)
  
• 55 outdoor patches (mini quests)
  
• 54 outfits (cosmetic upgrades)
  
• 6000 thieves (who you have to catch)
  
• 42 paintings (what got stolen)
  
• 40 falling crate challenges (minigames)
  
• 5 motocross trophies (randomly generated autorun levels)
  
• Millions of puzzle clues (randomly generated picross minigames)
  
• 2 family dogs
  
• 1 trading sequence
  
• 0 partridges or pear trees

”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. We will probably increase the price during or after the Early Access based on the amount of content available and feedback from the community.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We are looking forward to working with the community on a number of fronts.

Balancing the game
The Steam community's input will be vital to adjust the balance of the game in a variety of areas:

• Tweaking the random level generator
  
• Balancing the difficulty
  
• Balancing the in-game economy for the 80+ items to buy
  
• Adjusting the requirements of the Patch quests
  
• Refining the rate at which weapons unlock

Suggestions and ideas
We're eager to hear feedback and ideas from the Steam community about how to improve the game. Ideas for more/cooler/better secrets and end-game content are especially welcome. But across the board, we're looking forward to working with you to fill out parts of the game.

Bug hunting
We’ve done our best to provide as bug-free an experience as possible across all platforms. However, bugs are inevitable and there are certainly some hiding out somewhere in the code. If you find a bug, please let us know and you'll have our eternal, undying gratitude.”