Why Early Access?

“DRONE SMUGGLER is being released as early access because it is a passion project of a single developer. The game is already fun and offers plenty of replay value in its current state, and has a well-defined roadmap for the features that will make it into the final game.
The developer will use the Early Access period to collect feedback from players to help steer the final implementation of those ideas into the game and to help prioritize improvements.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“It's hard to say for sure. My best, conservative estimate is approximately a year from EA release (roughly Autumn of 2026). Community engagement and feedback (or lack thereof) will play a large role in determining this.”

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

“The planned full version would differ from the Early Access version by building upon the existing Arcade Mode (see "What is the current state of the Early Access version?" response for more on this) to add additional features to that mode as well as the option to play in other ways.

Without making any specific promises regarding features that may or may not make it into the final product, the vision for the full version of DRONE SMUGGLER is a game that would include Arcade Mode as a more freestyle way of playing for shorter sessions and a second "career" mode more focused on the player progressing through the game to unlock upgrades for their ship.

Planned Arcade Mode improvements:
*- Power-ups or repair kits that are dropped by certain enemies/hazards when the player destroys them
*- Better tracking of past play sessions and stats - things like... highest combo achieved, how many ships of each type destroyed, how many asteroids of each type destroyed, and other fun stats tracked and preserved across sessions for a limited number of ships (10 highest scoring ships or something along those lines)

Planned Privateer Mode (career mode) improvements:
*- A procedurally generated region of space with different systems and space stations rigged for DRONE broadcast, allowing the player to revisit those areas and play through similar, but never quite identical, versions of the same level more than once
*- A multi-tiered, procedurally generated upgrade system that allows the player to find synergies between different modules installed in the ship, building to enhance strengths and minimize weaknesses
*- NPC entities for the player to interact with through text/dialog options
*- Contracts that give each level a logical stopping point (other than destruction of the player ship) for that level when completed

Ideas for improvements which may come to the game and impact both modes:
*- Additional background music and ambient/atmospheric sound effects
*- At least one more”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Arcade Mode is playable and the game launches to a splash/loading screen and followed by a new level. Levels are 2D spaces made up of scrolling, looping background artwork and the space objects that spawn there. Each arcade level has four different three-color palettes assigned and the background, enemy space objects, and the player's ship all take their color from these.

The player's ship has 4 attributes - speed, agility, power, and hull - and all enemy space objects (ships, asteroids) have their own attribute values as well. These values are used in calculating the ship's behavior and the score received by the player when the player destroys the object.

The player's ship attributes, ship name, game settings (accessible via Options in the pause menu) as well as the high score and the name of the ship that set that high score are all saved to the player's user directory and loaded each time the game is launched.
”

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

“Yes, the plan is to gradually raise the price as new content and features are shipped.”

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

“I plan on being active in the Steam Community forums for the game to help identify and prioritize features for updates and bugs that need fixing.”