Why Early Access?

“I believe that Early Access is the right paradigm for this game. It is not about making sales during development, instead it is about a development process that engages the developers and the community in a relationship not unlike that of a Dungeon Master and the Players in a table-top RPG. Grist has always been intended to be a "Living Game" with a lifecycle similar to games like Dwarf Fortress and Caves Of Qud, where a foundational release is only the beginning of the journey and additional content and features are planned out in a series of waves.

We see the Early Access label as being the best way to communicate this through Steam, and we also believe that the audience for Grist understands both the risks and the rewards of participating in Early Access. As such, we are enthusiastic about engaging with the community in a shared journey.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect to be in early access for approximately 12-24 months.”

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

“If Grist were a boardgame, the Early Access version is the 'main box' version. The Full Release is more along the lines of "game, plus 1 big box expansion, 3 small box expansions and a guide to creating your own content."

Goals for the full version include:

- More of everything! More location types to visit, more enemies, more quest templates, more items, more crew classes and abilities, more factions to work for and so on.
- Additional scenario(s) that tell new stories in the same universe.
- Additional starting configurations for existing scenarios.
- Modding support for user generated scenarios, enemies, classes and so on.
- Enhanced animations and images to reduce the burden on text
- Integration with streaming platforms to enable viewers to participate as "DM"s in a streamer's game.
- Steam achievements
- Additional Language support”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The primary game mechanics are established, along with a baseline content - the current version features an "roguelike tower" style mode in which the game uses procedural generation to make increasingly harder levels as the player progresses, possibly reaching the final star cluster and beating the scenario.

So while all the fundamental game mechanics and functions are complete and the game is 'finishable', we are now building additional content and the procedural systems that will recombine that content into new situations and provide new ways for the scenario to develop and paths to take, so that each replay could potentially be vastly different from the last.”

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

“Our current plan is to maintain a low price during Early Access, and raise it once we go to a full release.”

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

“We would like to engage in the form of discussion and feedback through forums, community-driven in-game content/events, opening up modding capabilities for community members to develop their own scenarios, community challenges to coincide with updates, and progressing the lore of the universe in the context of player choices.”