Why Early Access?

“Bit Shifter is a full-featured game sporting novel gameplay. It is a 3D action/strategy game where you fly a hover-ship that can pickup, place, and heal your robotic soldiers; soldiers ready to fight in the war against the virus threatening your PC. Delivering the first 20 levels and a final boss level in a way that instructs without ever getting in the way of enjoying the game, has been challenging, and has involved many test iterations. Yet the game is not yet done.
We believe Early Access to be a great way for a small indie team such as Plastic Games to incrementally build upon its strong starting point and solid foundation.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan to be in early access until we deliver on our target feature set. We expect this will take about a year.”

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

“Bit Shifter groups levels and a final boss battle into a "System". In the first release System A has 20 levels and a boss level, and Windows and GNU/Linux/SteamOS support.

During Early Access we will add:
1. Systems B, and C with 50 more levels and 2 more Boss levels
2. Improve performance
3. Port to Mac OSX
4. Co-op mode - play with your friends
5. User Generated Content - create and share your own levels
6. Support for more controllers”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game play is solid and the game teaches you how to play as you go.
* Windows / Linux / SteamOS supported
* Full Game Controller Support with Natural FPS-style Control
* Arcade Action with a Robotic Bit Army
* Awesome Weapons and Power-ups
* Entertaining Story with Cool Characters
* Epic Boss Battle
* Ship and Weapon Upgrades
* Bonus Levels, Achievements, and more

The game is mostly bug free, however there are some issues such as:
* FPS drops at start of level
* poor FPS on some machines (low end AMD)
* only xbox and xbox style controllers currently supported”

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

“Once Early Access is over and the game is released, we will raise the price.”

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

“We plan monthly updates where we need players to give us feedback on:

1. New Levels
2. Difficulty
3. Achievements
4. The story
5. New weapons
6. New enemies
7. Co-op play
8. Testing on Windows, Linux (and Mac when available)
9. Level editor for User Generated Content”