Why Early Access?

“I have been working on this a long time, I have been slowly adding more capability to my custom game engine. I built this from the ground up with a friend and would love to share my progression as it develops and also get key feedback on design decisions ahead of the full release.

The key piece here is that this is a custom built graphics engine, and so ensuring compatibility with the maximum of systems is crucial to a successful full release.

The feedback will help guide the game, and I hope make it a more quality product. We hope to share the evolution of the product like we see with many early access releases.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“No date set for the full release, depending on reception and feedback I will be working hard to complete a full 12 mission game as envisaged.

I will add missions as we go, adding more variety. There will be additional game play added as well, complete with evolving the state of the game as feedback comes in.”

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

“Additional Levels and gameplay.

• More mission types
  
• Difficulty settings - Singe setting atm
  
• Additional graphical options such as Depth of Field.
  
• Additional graphical effects - e.g 3d impact effects etc.
  
• More levels - 8 more core campaign missions
  
• Additional AI - Varied planes including enemy aces
  
• Improved UI - User Interface feedback improvements that are crucial to User Experience
  
• More varied gameplay - Further progressive game modes such as defense based missions etc
  
• Localization

- Add support for a core set of languages. Requires some work in UI.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Its in a very good spot, most of the core engine work is done. Game play needs more work and UI needs to be revisited to improve user experience.

The game currently contains:

• 5 near complete levels for play.
  
• 4 Different planes to fly
  
• Load/Save progression on Campaigns
  
• A near complete graphics engine using .NET 5.0
  
• 3D based sound engine
  
• Around 1 to 2 hours worth of gameplay

Adding new levels to the game is very easy, but would like to offer new experiences to players as they go deeper.”

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

“No - Price of Early Release will be the same as full price. Purchasing now is sign of faith that I can get a full product to you! No price rise required, this was done as an hobby pursuit and want to maintain an authentic feel to our game dev.”

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

“This game was created in isolation, developed by myself and a friend. As such, it needs more community feedback to ensure that it is not just designed and created for us. It also to validate design decisions. Myself and my fellow dev will interact via the discussion forums, as a key interaction with the community, we also hope to share the direction and roadmap and get input into what would be interesting to our players .

It is also about getting feedback on the game in terms of issues/problems and improving the game itself. The goal being to have the players also be road testing the missions for fun, and gathering feedback through the discussion forums. This is crucial as this is a from the group up game engine, this is not UNITY or Unreal engine.

Further more, the missions will be reviewed and improved on feedback from users through the discussion forums. Also there will be betas of possible game features to try out and gain feedback on whether they improve the experience. And if popular enough to expand further past the original target delivery goals.”