Why Early Access?

“The Snake Is the Tower started as a demo, and every major system in it today was shaped by player feedback: the wave pacing, the relic drafts, the balance of the towers. That loop works, and we want to keep it running while we finish the game.

We are a two-person team at Happy Distractions Studio. Early Access lets us tune difficulty and balance against thousands of real runs instead of our own, and lets the community steer which relics, towers, and upgrades we build next.

The game only got this far because players told us what felt good and what felt off. We would like their help finishing it.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect roughly 2 to 4 months, but we will stay in Early Access as long as it takes to get the full version right.”

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

“We plan to grow the game in four directions:

- A finished third world, including its own full-scale finale boss to complete the arc of one boss per world.
- A deeper relic pool. We plan to add relics built around the game's territory painting and enemy lanes, not just combat stats, plus draft quality-of-life like banishing relics from the pool.
- A reworked wave flow. We are prototyping a pacing system where waves chain off the pressure you are under instead of fixed timers, so strong play 0]==]makes the game faster and denser.
- More meta progression, including build-defining keystone nodes on the skill grid that change how a run plays, not just how hard you hit.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is fully playable from start to what is currently the end, with a complete core loop and no placeholder systems:

- 3 worlds, 16 sections, each capped by a lane-hopping mini boss, with two full-scale boss fights.
- 12 tower types across 4 tiers each, including 4 hybrid towers created by merging different types.
- A pre-run loadout: 6 ranged weapons, 3 melee styles, and 9 passives, unlocked through the skill grid.
- A per-run relic draft with about 20 relics, fed by merging towers mid-run.
- A 100-node meta skill grid, a galaxy map for level select, and per-world currencies.
- Full controller support throughout, including menus and drafts.”

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

“No. Same price”

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

“Feedback comes to us through the in-game feedback button, our Discord, and Steam discussions, and we read all of it. This is the same loop that built the demo into this game: players report what feels good and what feels off, we ship, repeat. Expect regular updates with patch notes that credit the feedback that drove them.”