Why Early Access?

“- Development of Space Scrublords began in mid Jan 2025. Currently the game is very much in an early alpha state, where many of the core features, mechanics, and systems are under development and not yet playable. During Early Access I offer the chance for early play testers to not only follow the development process through my discord, but help find bugs, and provide feedback on the games mechanics and balance.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“General Roadmap:
MASSIVELY IMPORTANT NOTE: the timeline below is a very ROUGH idea, based on me working as a solo dev on this project fulltime 7 days a week. It may take longer, or shorter for each of the phases below. I've outlined them as a general idea of my goals to achieve before I leave early access, and these should not be considered promise's or commitments. Dev work is hard. Dev work is unpredictable. Things change. Life happens
My current GENERAL (giving timelines is really hard...) planned roadmap is:
- Q2 2025: "Core Foundation Phase" - continue work on base core features of game, like finishing all code for abilities, resource usage, base building modes, season tracking, quest mode etc to make the game have all necessary features for single player modes.
- Q3 2025: "Network/Multiplayer Phase" - focus on on server set up, and coding to handle online/multiplayer modes. Connect user accounts to their Steam account. And provide linking of their game account to their discord account.
- Q4 2025: "Cosmetics/Visual Assets/Final Polish Phase" - focus on cosmetics/shop system. Replacing 3d model primitives with actual 3d models/skins/assets. Finalize animations/effects/sounds.

So my goal is to leave Early Access at that point. And from then on spend my time designing major balance patches for the next season, handling minor mid season balance patches that become necessary as the player base develops new meta's, expanding cosmetics, creating special limited time game modes, and adding more content/features/expanded game modes to the game.

Current Time Investment/Update Cycle:
- I'm working on this game literally 7 days a week, from the time I wake up till I goto sleep every single day, with new releases/updates published constantly, sometimes everyday, so it's a very exciting time to get involved in the Early Access process. And I'm reachable via my discord, as long as I am awake.
- I figure this is worth noting, as most often, small solo Indie dev's are only working part time on their games, investing 2-10 hours here and there with long breaks in between. Which i've always found really annoying as a player. With my much larger time investment it means the rate of change of my game in early access will be much faster than what many players are used to. For some this might be great, for others, it might be too much to keep up with, and they may prefer to only check in once in a while, or waiting till I leave Early Access and the rate of releases/updates slows down.”

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

“- The features that currently don't exist yet, and that I deem necessary to leave Early Access and goto full version are as follows:

• special abilities coded
  
• abilities consume resources (and for that to be "balanced enough" to get started)
  
• quest mode
  
• base building mode
  
• more ui's for game settings
  
• seasons
  
• network code
  
• multiplayer pve and pvp modes
  
• cosmetics shop & character customization (selecting your cosmetics)
  
• 3d models, animations, asset polishing (game currently is using primitive shapes for many models)
  
• decently enough balanced player progression vrs time investment and player strength vrs point in progression to get started

”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Current Game State:
- In the games current state at the time of writing this (mid april 2025), the game is only playable basically as a "demo" with single player Arcade and Perpetual modes. No online functionality yet. Much of the art/assets/3d models are basic primitive's used as placeholders while the code functionality is being developed. Ship base abilities exist, but special abilities have not yet been coded. Main and Sub roles exist, and the Skill Tree system is functional, but will need balancing based on feedback. While resource collection exists, having abilities consume resources to use is not yet functional. The base building portion of the game, has not yet even been started to be coded yet. Cosmetics/character customization systems have not yet been implemented. And "seasons" will not officially start until the game leaves Early Access (but at some point, will be added in during Early Access, however any seasons during Early Access will be considered test seasons, and historic records/logs of them will be wiped and we will restart at season 0, once the game leaves Early Access)

Game Balance/Progression vrs Player Time Investment Goals:
- Game balance is constantly being tweaked, adjusted, and experimented with as I go through the process, change things, and collect time investment data during playtesting. Atm the initial idea is to balance the game around it taking roughly "169 playhours" to 100% everything each season, since each season will have partial "wipes". But as I'm very early in the process, that is very much subject to change (if so it would likely be less, not more, Im not looking to make this into an "mmo grinder" type time investment). Im looking to create an experience, where the early phase your weak, and really feel the need to earn some progression and git stronger. And with a low time investment of maybe around 10 hours, you get to the point where you feel you have enough early strength to have overcome that "early struggle" enough where now your grinding out progression, and enjoying discovering new abilities/stronger stats. I hope that I can get the balance so that by the mid game, you feel that now you can really just focus on farming out resources to enjoy customizing your base and unlocking the enhanced powerups from that, or just running through PvP runs often and enjoying the competitive state of PvP while you see how far you can go this season.”

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

“Pricing After Early Access:
- Post early access pricing is to be determined so below comments are subject to change.
- My general idea atm is:

• maintain a low base cost (or maybe even free) for the game itself, and mechanics/game balance where everything in the base game is achievable without any in game shop purchases.
  
• maintain a cost for in game currency purchases, where purchasing in game currency is an option, not a need, for players who want to customize their cosmetics or boost their progression each season more rapidly.
  
• maintain optional season pass's post early access, where season passes provide increased rate of progression for players looking to get to end game faster, or invest less play hours each season to reach end game from farming.
  
• increase potential game revenue post early access by increasing available cosmetic options, and managing seasons in a way that makes them attractive enough to participate in and maybe buy season pass's for.

”

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

“How To Join the Community, Get Involved, Track Progress, Report Bugs, Make Suggestions:
- Community: join the games Official Discord to chat with other Early Access players, or the dev himself.
- Ask Questions: in Discord, I keep an FAQ covering most basics of the game, and you can ask anything in the game-questions room or gen chat. (keep in mind, if I'm chatting in discord all day, I'm not able to code, so if I don't always answer, ask other members of the community)
- Track Updates: in Discord, I post my change log where you can keep up on all changes made to the game. Or you can assign yourself the "Alpha Tester" role, to get Dev Announcement pings for new game updates that add core/important features.
- Report Bugs: in Discord, I use a bug-reports forum, to keep track of anything players find that needs investigating/fixing.
- make Suggestions: in Discord, I use a feature-requests forum, to keep track of any suggestions made by players.”