Why Early Access?

“This project is made solely by volunteers during their free time. While we have a fixed team, it is small and volunteer.

The launcher itself is not finished and some third party components (required to play in certain worlds) have no replacement, causing a subpar user experience in overall.

Also, the worlds themselves are constantly mutable, in development and expansion, which means that there might be more bugs than people to fix them.

We plan to make a polished, bug-free game, with the worlds fully interleaved for a smooth experience, complete and with content which you can keep playing for as long as you want.

Right now, the worlds still need more late game content (except for rEvolt world, which needs early game content as well), but given the nature of MMO, nobody wants to put effort into late game if players dislike early game content. In some cases, this might affect development for the late game. Which is why instead of focusing on finishing the worlds and connecting them, we opted to make early access.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Depends on the volunteers.

Our core team is small, fixing bugs and polishing is an eternal fight, and building the worlds in a way they connect each other takes a lot of work.

We also have a history of missing deadlines; We review the status every year (so we can give a year warning before it leaves early access), but at current pace, that won't happen before 2032. This estimate is based on the development team foundation (2004), the current progress, and the planned content until the worlds are finished.

The worlds on draft status should become stable before 2024, though, they're pretty advanced already.

As said before, if more volunteers join, this date can happen early - it is not unheard of sudden progress bursts - we'll keep everyone informed in the game and in the forums.”

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

“The main change is that full version will provide a much smoother experience, without the need to download addons or plugins to fully enjoy our game but the capacity to do so. That's the main goal.

We probably will get rid of the current launcher entirely as it is heavy on the computer, and may rewrite the client as well, but the old client should keep working. Expect changes in the GUI. Graphical replacements are also possible.

For the worlds, we are ambitious, planning to add much more quests, monsters, maps, and possibly even new mechanics to keep everyone entertained. We also want to make they communicate each other way more than they currently do. But balance exempted, we do not have any immediate plan to change what already exists.

It is important to mention that in worlds with draft status, we may have to delete all player data as the balance on them is still volatile, and we are unsure if we'll keep the features - this absolutely will not happen in stable worlds, though. Never ever, but we may do limited reverts in cause of frauds or problems beyond our control.

As it is an open source volunteer-driven project, though, the scope could change drastically if new people come with new ideas and implement them ─ nothing is set on stone in the open source world.

If the scope changes, we'll keep everyone informed on the forums and Steam, and give a chance to give feedback and opinions as well.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is fully playable, but highly mutable and most worlds cannot be played without using a third-party addition. Additionally, most of the multiverse's story still haven't been finished, and the launcher has no soundtrack.

To be honest, most people dislike the launcher, and it may get a full rewrite before the final release, including changing the engine to something lighter. Currently, it can connect to any world and it needs a while to exchange a limited scope of variables between each world so the multiverse experience can happen.

One of the worlds is already fully playable and feature-rich, and the other two will soon leave the draft status. You can read more about the worlds on the About section.”

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

“No, the game is and always will be free.”

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

“Community is free to enter in contact with us or even help us on development if they so wish; Some quests are also meant to be done by the whole community, and we need the beta server in early access to ensure they'll be working correctly; To ensure the best experience for everyone involved.

Our git repositories are (usually) public, and we may actively invite people to help. You can find in the about section and in the store page links all the information you can need, but just in case, we keep a list of places you can find us on at https://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Chat”