Why Early Access?

“Quite frankly, because we’re trying something that’s never really been done before. While there have been a few games with Twitch-interactivity built in, Streamline was built from the ground-up with Broadcasters and their audiences in mind. We’re trying to make real-time interaction between the Broadcaster, their players, and their communities and, well, it’s hard to put that through its paces on our own.

On top of that very real need, we’ve valued open development and tight interaction loops with our community since the company was founded. Early Access allows us to hear what you think, what’s working, and what’s not, all out in the open for everyone to see.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Streamline will be in Early Access for approximately 6 to 9 months and we hope to release in the Spring or Summer of 2017. This should give us the time we need to gather and respond to feedback, ensure large-scale stability, and add the remaining features both Proletariat and the community want.”

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

“Through Early Access, we’ll be refining the game, fixing performance issues, and bugs, but most importantly, for the full version, we want to add some major features, possibly including:

• Additional game modes, such as Team Elimination and Stream vs. Stream
  
• New maps, Rules, Bonuses, Clothing, and more additional content
  
• More interactivity via Streamote, such as Sponsorship, new mini-games, or even the Twitch equivalent of passing the controller while playing with a friend on the couch
  
• A structure for persistent player rankings and game-wide leaderboards
  
• New gameplay and progression systems, including more advancement movement options

We also want to explore bringing Streamline to other streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Beam, and Facebook Live.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Streamline is stable and fully playable. It’s already been played by hundreds of Broadcasters with thousands of players, in front of hundreds of thousands of interacting viewers on Twitch. Each game can host up to 16 players on one of five different maps, with dozens of Rules, Bonuses, and Accolades, along with hundreds of pieces of clothing.

Viewers can also use Streamote, a fully responsive website across their desktop, mobile, and tablet web browsers, to play along with the Streamline players.”

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

“Streamline is priced lower during Early Access as both a token of our appreciation to you, our early users, helping us to refine and improve the game, but also as a reflection of the work-in-progress nature of Streamline at this time. It is likely that this price will increase when we release the full game to reflect the many additions and improvements we’re making during Early Access.”

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

“We’ve always been a very community-focused company and with Streamline, we’re going even further. We have a Discord server that’s open to the public for real-time interaction and chat with and between the community and the developers. Members can use our Discord server to promote their own games of Streamline, organize with other players, give feedback, or just hang out.

We also have twice-weekly playtests of Streamline (at least!), streamed live on Twitch, and open to the community where players can join up with us, check out the current work-in-progress version of the game, and let us know what they think.

On top of that, we’ve stayed open and active on the Steam forums, Reddit, Twitter, and other community sites, both as a company and individual employees.”