Why Early Access?

“Our dream as indie game studio is to create games people love to play, and enjoy the stories we tell. Kindred Vale is such a project. We really got excited about the game idea and want to bring it to life. We have the vision, concepts, we started building a beautiful game world and gather lots of cool alpine lore for our game's cozy setting and storytelling.

To get as much feedback as possible, we want to release Kindred Vale early and see what players like, which aspects of the game resonate with them, and concentrate on polishing the aspects that make Kindred Vale unique rather than aspects players are fed up by. We need the community's help and are looking forward to have joyful feedback sessions in the forums.

That's why we want to release the game as an Early Access title and shape the development of Kindred Vale together with you, the player.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan to spend about a year in Early Access. To give both our team and our community enough time to play, listen to feedback, implement it, and develop crucial parts of the game together.”

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

“We plan to release the Early Access version of Kindred Vale with a fun and engaging set of gameplay, lore and a story that goes beyond usual cozy games. There will be the activities you love in cozy life-sim games like exploring, fishing, gathering, romancing, and customization options for your character and home in our unique Austrian Alps setting.

We envision a finished version of Kindred Vale to have the initial Early Access version of the game with a lot of polish and player feedback implemented.

To extend the scope further, we will run a Kickstarter campaign before Early Access release. Depending on the outcome of that campaign, we plan to extend the game's scope by various stretch goals, if achieved.

Those stretch goals might include

• multiplayer
  
• additional areas to explore like the island on the lake, the higher mountains, mines
  
• richer and deeper storytelling and romancing options for characters
  
• more activities and mini-games such as animal care, farming, shearing sheep, producing wool and your own clothes
  
• town extensions like the beautiful Night Market

Bear in mind we cannot predict the future and how the game or the studio will evolve in the current economy. Let me say, though, that we are all really, really passionate about this project and we invite you to join our Discord to get in touch and see for yourself. We're sure our community and vision for Kindred Vale will resonates with you. But as is the nature with Early Access titles, there is always the possibility for failing.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“We plan to release the Early Access version of Kindred Vale in the first half of 2025. Please refer to the "How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?" section to read what we planned for EA and how the EA version is planned to evolve until full release.”

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

“The Early Access will launch with a slightly smaller price as a thank you for the help during the Early Access phase and believing in our project. The price will be increased at full release.”

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

“We are planning to develop Kindred Vale in tandem with our community. We have a thriving DIscord community for our prior cozy game and want to extend it to Kindred Vale's Early Access phase to interact more closely with our community on this Discord as well as Steam's forums.

Specifically actively asking the community for feedback on certain game aspects we are developing, hosting Q&A sessions on Discord, posting updates and being transparent about what we can and can't implement. We strongly believe that Early Access is crucial to indie developers to creating a game loved by players. Your feedback will be crucial to bring Kindred Vale to a state that you, our community, want to see.”