Why Early Access?

“We decided to go into Early Access with EVERSPACE 2 since working closely with our most-dedicated fans helped tremendously when making its predecessor. Early Access enables us to stay truly independent, not compromise on our creative vision, and release the game only when we and our community think it is ready.

Now, as we make the leap from making a linear roguelike space shooter as a small indie team to creating a full-blown open-world space looter shooter as an ambitious AA PC game with EVERSPACE 2, we need your help more than ever.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We had been working hard for over two and a half years to have core gameplay mechanics and a good chunk of quality content in place for a solid Early Access release. Since the launch in January 2021, we have released three major content updates with three more to come in 2022 before hitting full release in early 2023. You can find more in our 2022 roadmap Steam news update here.”

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

“As mentioned in our 2022 roadmap Steam news update, we hit about 80% completion of production at the end of 2021. For better clarity, we have listed the planned scope of the full release below:

• More star systems, locations, enemies, activities etc. (7 star systems planned for v1.0)
  
• More player ship subclasses and tiers (9 subclasses with 4 tiers each planned for v1.0)
  
• More ship customization options
  
• More player levels (max player level 30 planned for v1.0)
  
• More items and resources incl. Legendary gear
  
• More player perks (6 x 3 perk upgrade options planned for v1.0)
  
• More companion characters incl. perks to upgrade (7 companions planned for v1.0)
  
• More challenges
  
• More main and side mission story content (30+ hours of story content planned for v1.0)
  
• More situational commentary from Adam and Hive
  
• More interesting jobs and factions
  
• More alien creatures
  
• Natural phenomena like lightning fields, black holes, solar storms, etc.
  
• Different Outlaw factions with different tech
  
• Better trading opportunities, price tracking, trade routes
  
• Codex
  
• Game difficulty setting
  
• Worthwhile endgame content and activities
  
• Achievements
  
• UI and text language support for German (as well as professional voice dubbing), French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
  
• Mac and Linux support

”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“EVERSPACE 2 currently features English voice acting for the first 20+ hours of the story campaign and several side missions that take place in four out of seven planned star systems in the final game. The current version is easily good for 40 hours of gameplay for players who search for all the secrets, solve each puzzle, and complete every challenge available while also taking each of the eight ship classes for a spin at least once.

Even though all core gameplay mechanics of space combat, exploration, mining, puzzle-solving, traveling, trading, itemization, crafting, ship customization, and companion perks are already implemented, we are still working on all these systems based on community feedback.

We have put a great amount of effort into performance optimization, but there is still potential for improvement and it would be great to get your feedback on how your overall gameplay experience is (please share your specs and game settings if you do so).

While EVERSPACE 2 is not meant to be a hardcore space sim, we have spent a lot of time adding fully customizable controls also for HOTAS/HOSAS/HOSAM incl. presets for popular Logitech and Thrustmaster joysticks hardware setups.

Of course, there are still some design issues and minor bugs already on our list as the game is not finished. That said, we believe that there is lots of stuff for you to enjoy even at this stage. If you are still on the fence, make sure to check out the ROCKFISH Games channel on YouTube or Twitch where we stream the latest dev build every Friday from 8 pm to 10 pm CET / 2 pm to 4 pm ET / 11 am to 1 pm PT to see for yourself where production is currently at.”

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

“During Early Access, we are running only a few moderate discounts as we very much respect and appreciate the financial commitment of our backers when we only had a prototype to show to get pilots excited about our vision back in 2019.

At full release, we plan to reasonably raise the price to what feels right for a polished AA space combat and exploration game with at least 30 hours of story content plus many more hours of fun in the endgame when hunting for the best loot in EVERSPACE 2.

Thankfully, we don’t have any investors or publishers breathing down our neck, so we can promise we won’t have any microtransactions, obtrusive product placement, or other immersion-breaking advertisements ruining your experience further down the line. However, eagle-eyed players may spot a few subtle placements where we give a nod to a handful of excellent content creators who help us promote the game.

Furthermore, EVERSPACE 2 will be DRM-free, requiring no internet connection after downloading the latest version. We also consider NFTs, especially in the area of games, to be pure rip-offs. So if someone tries to sell you EVERSPACE, EVERSPACE 2, or ROCKFISH Games crypto-crap, it’s a scam!”

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

“We have been working closely with our community since the very beginning when we announced the first EVERSPACE installment, in 2015. The best place to provide feedback would be the Steam forum or on our website https://everspace.game. If you are up for more personal interactions with the team and EVERSPACE fans, join our Discord channel. Of course, we are also active on all our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram, where your feedback is highly appreciated, too.”