Why Early Access?

“We’re a small two-person studio building The Dead Roam Free with guts, coffee, and too much love for old pixel horror. The core of the game is already there — the zombie-snake mechanic, the story, and the atmosphere — but we want to shape the next chapters together with players.

Early Access lets us test new levels, balance puzzles, and fine-tune the horde-growing chaos based on real feedback instead of guesses. We’re also developing the story episodically, so it makes sense to share it bit by bit while we keep adding content and polish.

In short, we want to make sure the game stays as fun, weird, and un-dead as possible — and we’d love your help doing it.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan to stay in Early Access for around 6–12 months.
That gives us enough time to add new chapters, features, and the occasional surprise monster without turning into zombies ourselves.”

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

“We plan to include the following
• Additional level environments, hazards, and puzzle mechanics
• More additions like steam achievements and power-ups
• A full soundtrack, more gore (the classy kind), and bonus secrets
• Overall balancing, visual polish, and bug-exorcising

Basically, Early Access is the B-movie cut — the full release will be the cult classic.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current build includes:
• The complete first episode with all puzzle levels
• Core zombie-snake mechanics (growing your horde, eating humans, avoiding bullets)
• Full controller and keyboard support
• Music, sound effects, and all the blood you could reasonably want

It’s fully playable from start to finish, but we’re still fine-tuning difficulty, pacing, and performance.”

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

“The Dead Roam Free is free, and will remain free.”

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

“The community can
- Report bugs, we will look at them and fix them if this is needed.
- Suggest features. Not all suggested features will be implemented but we will considere them.
- Report balancing issues etc, general improvements that we can apply to the game to make it more fun!”