Why Early Access?

“Hi! We’re releasing Scrabdackle episodically, in three acts - each one is a full, polished, and complete experience of about 12-18 hours of content, for an eventual final game size in the ~40-50 hour range. We’re launching Act 1 now, with 2 and 3 to follow. Episodic release formats aren’t really common on Steam, so Early Access seemed like the cleanest way to communicate that there’s more future content to come, even if the content in Act 1 is itself complete.

Each act has its own narrative focus and ends with a climax that then sets up the next one, and we want to let each one settle - I personally think this is the best way to experience the game, like when a show drops weekly episodes and you can discuss and mull each one over, vs binging a whole season at once and moving on. I actually designed them to be experienced one at a time like this, so on my end, this release format is ideal!

I’m still developing Acts 2 & 3, but Act 1 has been ready for over a year, and given how each act is designed to stand on its own, I’d really like to start sharing the game now, rather than all at once, a long while from now. I’m really excited for you to take a look!”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Roughly two years: Act 2 will release a year-ish after Act 1 launches in Early Access, and Act 3 will release another year or so after that and conclude the overarching story. The game will exit Early Access when Act 3 is released.”

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

“Act 1 is a complete experience, though isn’t the full three-act story of Scrabdackle. We’re not doing the ‘usual’ EA thing of testing incomplete content to see how it plays; this is just about delivering ready-to-serve content one giant act at a time. Since all released content will be ‘done cooking,’ we’ll be listening to player feedback in a forward-looking way rather than aiming to revise what’s already out - but if someone’s got a balance tuning idea or feedback on a puzzle room, we’ll still be listening!”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Act 1 is a full and polished 12-18 hour experience with 10 regions, 9 bosses, 6 spells, 80+ minutes of music, about 60 other unique collectibles from hidden secrets or challenges, over 120 notebook entries, and about 70,000 words of dialogue and diagetic writing. It’s BIG! Our motivation for using the Early Access model is to release in an episodic format, and each episode will be a whole and finished thing.”

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

“Yes! When Act 2 releases, the price will increase slightly, and when Act 3 releases and the game exits Early Access, it will increase slightly again. (Although, if you buy the game now, you won’t be paying more for any future content!)”

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

“Feedback-wise: While I’ve got a very strong vision for the game and future content is already well underway, it’s still really important to any developer to keep ears open for player thoughts, QOL things to tweak, and so on.

I can’t realistically personally respond to everything (at least, not without forward development grinding to a halt) but I’ll always be in the loop on player feedback, even if sometimes that means someone passes it on to me while I’m busy focusing on a new boss or something. I won’t be reinventing released acts beyond as-needed tweaks and adjustments, but I always want to be incorporating feedback into future development for Acts 2+3.

Comms-wise: We’ve had an active and thriving Discord community since the original demo launched on Itch in 2020 that you’re very welcome to come hang out on, even if you haven’t tried the game out yet! It’s a really welcoming space. I’m always around there, and pretty much always talking about what I’ve been up to with the game (it’s harder to get me to stop, honestly).

I’ll be making Steam update posts every now and then too, but if you want more, I also write these big, detailed seasonal check-ins on Kickstarter (you can scroll back a bunch if you’re curious how far the game’s come!). All that to say, there’s really no shortage of ways to find me talking about the game’s development progress if you’re interested in following the game’s progress towards Act 3!”