Why Early Access?

“This software was built as part of a research project and now we want to see how people use it and what they might want to see in a new version. The software will evolve based on the feedback we receive and early access gives us the ability to get as much feedback as possible.”

Approximately how long will this software be in Early Access?

“The way we see it, if there's demand to improve it, we will continue development indefinitely. We don't expect Early Access to last longer than a year, but we don't expect to stop working on it after that either.”

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

“We have a few ideas, for things we want to get into a version 1.0

Arduino object interactions,
Better object browsers,
Custom object imports,
Video links in media objects,
Exporting games to play standalone.

But really we're interested in finding out what YOU all want in it.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current version is what we'd consider a minimum viable product, we don't currently know of any gamebreaking bugs but there are a few bits and pieces we know we need to fix.

Current Features:
Simple - Event-Condition-Action - Programming language
Programmable AI Characters
Large selection of objects, weapons, pickups, and props for Medieval and modern environments
First Person and Third Person play modes with a selection of Avatars
Tile based Drag and Drop Level Creator with premade environments
Prebuilt particle effects objects
Custom media objects (to import custom text, sounds, and images into your game)
Simple combat system”

Will this software be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Price will not change when we leave early access, however we do plan to release DLC in order to help fund future updates.

Our main concern is impact, we want as many people as possible to be able to use this software to explore literature from a game making perspective.”

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

“Well, any way we can!

There's a survey here we'd love for everyone to fill in once they've used the software:
https://redcap.slms.ucl.ac.uk/surveys/?s=HPYEJL7RKW

We're also planning on implementing bug reporting forms and tracking systems so we can find as many issues as possible.

Because this is all research based we are implenting an iterative design philosophy part of which is discovering and gathering data on how to communicate with stakeholders (in this case You) in the best way we can.

This software was built as part of a research project, and further data on what people find useful and how it could be improved allows us to build a case for further development. So in a sense, feedback can actually lead to the generation of further funding (if we do the work to sort the data and make a research case for it). So please let us know what you think!

Also as we get more responses we're hoping to get suggestions on how people want to communicate with us. So expect that to evolve over time as well.”