Why Early Access?

“Ethereal Gem, LLC is an indie game studio with an incredibly small team developing Bowmen. Because of this, internal play testing can only get us so far, and we felt that the game would greatly benefit from feedback obtained directly from players. How fast minions move, minion health, item balance, minion types, and the overall game's experience will be much more refined with community feedback, and so we decided to release Bowmen on Early Access prior to launch.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Currently, Bowmen does not have a hard release date. While we feel that the game in its current state is fairly polished, our vision of what Bowmen is and could be may differ from that of players. Perhaps minions spawn too slowly, or the gameplay feels stale and not very engaging. Perhaps some items are overpowered, while others feel they aren’t worth ever equipping. Perhaps some players would enjoy different game modes in addition to Onslaught, such as multiplayer, which would keep them engaged with the game. These are questions we want to address during the Early Access period.

Regardless of how development proceeds, we expect to be as transparent as possible with the Steam community on the development process, our progress, and upcoming game changes.”

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

“Bowmen currently is a single-player experience in which you, the Bowman, fight off hordes of enemies for as long as possible using a variety of skills, weapons, and environmental advantages. While this game mode, referred to as “Onslaught”, will continue to evolve during the Early Access period, we hope to add an additional multiplayer “Arena” mode in the full version of the game. This game mode will allow players to fight against each other in one-on-one or team-based combat matches, putting their archery skills to the ultimate test.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Single-player Onslaught mode in Early Access is nearly complete. However, we do expect this game mode to change in response to player feedback as development continues, including enemy health changes, changes to enemy movement speed, item balance changes, and the introduction of additional enemy types. Arena PvP mode is currently not in the Early Access version of the game and is under active development since the beginning of 2023. For more information about the status of PvP development, please see our updates on our official website or under News and Announcements on Steam.”

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

“We plan on offering Bowmen at a discounted price during Early Access to reward those that took an interest in the game and its development during this period. After Early Access, the game's price may increase slightly. However, since Bowmen is a short and small game from a very small game studio, we intend to keep the game overall relatively inexpensive.”

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

“All feedback provided to us while Bowmen is in Early Access will be taken very seriously. We have set up a support forum dedicated to player feedback, bug reporting, and support for Bowmen in addition to the support forum available through Steam. We want Bowmen to really shine, and your feedback will help us get it there. Player feedback will help Bowmen evolve and take shape as we get closer to its official launch.

We also plan on regularly updating the community when feedback from players have directly led to game changes, along with which players contributed to this change (if desired). We plan on listing the names or Steam IDs (whichever is preferred) of all Early Access players that provided useful feedback that influenced the development of the game at the final launch.”