Why Early Access?

“The Stagees music playing platform / (game) has been created for the love of music and is currently available to all Steam users free of charge. The development has until now been developer driven, meaning that the available 1,0 version of the game has primarily been developed in isolation from a solid community.

The aim with the platform / (game) is that users would be able to feel and experience the art of playing music for real and at the same time learn something along the way in a game like environment. Currently the music playing part is dominating the experience and giving everybody the possibility to play music. Next however, we would be very keen to develop further the gamification aspects with the help and supporting ideas of a community. What sort of game elements would you like us to include and develop? Please join this early access possibility and give us your feed-back and thoughts, it is highly appreciated, thanks !”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“There is no set time for this, and it will depend a lot on what kind of suggestions and development ideas we will get from the community, and how long it will take to develop these. There are many possible routes to take. One idea is that a complete Stagees game “has a start and an end” where players advance in levels by being able to play songs with a limited number of mistakes, this may obviously then include titles, prices, skins etc. Another route would be that this is more of a battle game where single- or multi-players play the same music, and the winner gets to the next round. A third possibility is that there are global leaderboards, and we simply find out who is the best player in the world. A fourth alternative could be that players create their own “worlds” = songs which then can be distributed among players with the aim to play them clean (ex. Geometry Dash) and so on, there are many other ideas as well, but we would like to first hear what you think...Our estimate is that the game will exit early access stage in about six months time .”

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

“The musical part of the platform works nicely and include most of the basic functionalities for being able to play music. Of course, a lot can still be developed, as for instance speed adjustment to the note flow, more detailed sound adjustments, possibility for additional sound fonts etc. and if there is a demand these can be included. Next we plan to involve the community to get a stronger gaming angle to the platform. (see previous question). Additionally, the graphics have been made in retro style, since this is a retro style game, and this may require some fine tuning for the full version. On short term our objective is to include following features:
- Leaderboards
- Rewards for achievements
- Online co-op multi-play
- Slider for note speed”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Currently the platform works great for playing music and getting the experience of being a “musician” with your favorite artist or playing music with your friends as a group. Just get together, choose or import your most-liked tunes and start to play them, it will be a lot of fun! The gaming part however is still on purpose a bit slim (see earlier questions) and is for now limited to score count and high score statistics. Additionally, there is a possibility to play a local battle between 2 – 4 players by importing a song that include duplicates of the same track (instrument).”

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

“Future pricing for the full game will very much be dependent on the complexity of certain development activities or functionalities and whether for instance some nice to have new features would involve a recurring cost elements for the developer. Most likely we will include price elements for some of the new features, but the aim is to keep the pricing reasonable and give users the joy of being able to play and deepen their understanding and knowledge of music through the game.”

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

“By joining the early access, we are asking for some assistance from the community, and they will be very much in the centre of the gamification development. We have earmarked e-mail boxes and a www contact form in place for personal feed-back, and then then we will activate the Stagees Instagram channel and devote that to become the “heart” of the community, where users are able to share development ideas, experiences, activities and so on.”