Why Early Access?

“Sketchbrawl is already fun to play: Arena and Sandbox are complete and playable from start to finish. We want to grow the rest of the game together with players. An auto-battler lives or dies by its balance and by how different each faction feels, and that is something we can tune far better with real games and real feedback than on our own. Early Access lets us ship a solid core now and shape what comes next around what players enjoy most.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect Sketchbrawl to stay in Early Access for about 6 to 12 months. The exact length will depend on player feedback and on how much we add along the way.”

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

“We plan to expand Sketchbrawl in several directions:

- Progression between runs: earning coins in Arena and using them to unlock factions, commanders and new units.
- Deeper army building: more units for every faction, letting you choose which units you bring while keeping each faction's structure of common, rare, epic and legendary units.
- Commander skills: a passive bonus and an automatic battle skill for each commander that grows stronger as a run goes on, plus guest commanders.
- A roguelike campaign mode built on the same auto-battles, with branching paths and rising difficulty.
- New factions, each with its own play style.
- Richer combat feedback: distinct hit effects and sounds for each weapon type.
- Ongoing balance updates, and features such as Steam achievements and cloud saves.

Plans may change based on what players tell us.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version includes:

- Arena, the main mode: pick one of 6 factions, each with 12 units across common, rare, epic and legendary tiers and its own commander. Buy units from the shop, place them on a grid, and watch them fight automatically. Combine 3, 6 or 9 copies of a unit to promote it. A run continues until you collect 10 trophies or lose all 5 lives.
- Sandbox: place any units from any of the 6 factions and watch large battles play out.
- Pre-battle and post-battle commander scenes, music, and settings for volume and fullscreen.
- English and Simplified Chinese.
- Windows and macOS.

The game is fully playable, but balance is still being tuned (some factions are currently stronger than others), and hit effects are simpler than we would like. Progression between runs and unit unlocks are not in yet.”

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

“We plan to gradually raise the price as we add new content and features. Buying during Early Access gets you the game at its lowest price, along with every future update at no extra cost.”

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

“We read the Steam discussions and reviews and use them to decide what to fix and build next, especially balance: which factions or units feel too strong or too weak. We plan to post regular updates on what changed and why, and to try out bigger changes with players before making them final.”