Why Early Access?

“Arcane Waters is a multiplayer action game that will support thousands of players concurrently. Many of the features we are building will involve tens if not hundreds of players coordinating together in a shared experience. Our goal during Early Access is to balance how these features work, tuning Guild, cooperative, and PvP play so that they support our original vision of the game. Particularly, we want to make sure that these capabilities encourage players to chart their own path, developing specific skills and resources based on their own interest in the game. We’ll be successful in Early Access if we’re able to deliver that experience to our player community.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect to leave Early Access in 2023, but we’ll remain flexible and respond to players' feedback and development challenges, which might have an impact on our timeline. We’ll be sure to keep players involved and informed about our progress.”

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

“We plan to use Early Access to complete the final set of our 7 regions for the game, each with unique quests, items, and foes. We’ll also develop and test the meta-game with the community. This way we ensure proper balance and engagement for both new and more seasoned players.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Arcane Waters will set sail into Early Access with the core elements of the game complete. This includes 4-5 unique regions to explore, sea and land battles, farming, quests, PvP, and guilds.”

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

“Arcane Waters base price will not change upon entering full release. However, all players that purchase during Early Access will receive a commemorative in-game item with their purchase that won’t be available thereafter as thanks for coming along this journey with us.”

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

“During EA we’re excited to continue the conversations that we’ve already started with the community. We’re still ironing out things like ship strengths, how challenging the puzzles are in each quest, all the way down to the price of carrots and potatoes. Those are all active conversations with players today that we hope will continue. And we’re looking forward to sharing new topics for discussion as we add new regions with more quests and challenges and roll out new ships.

By the time we get to EA, players will understand most of the fundamental mechanics of the game, but there will still be some new capabilities: We’re super excited to develop the meta-game. That’s going to involve a lot of conversations about what kinds of things guilds will invest in, whether it’s new buildings, control over sea lanes and resources, or bragging rights over some of the distant territories that may require significant investment to reach.

In terms of how we talk to players, we’ll continue to take feedback via our Discord and social media, and use player surveys for specific details. We plan to continue to run playtests to showcase new capabilities after we enter Early Access. We expect that will help us focus players on the feature we’re adding as we move through the year.”