Why Early Access?

“Null Anchor has been my passion project for nearly 6 years. I have lots more to add to it, but while I move towards the full version, I intend to keep the game fully playable at every step.

Should the game achieve any success in early access, it would also help me spend more time working on it. If this fails, however, development will just continue at the current slow pace - as it has been for almost 6 years.

The plan is to pull a "No Man's Sky" with continued updates:
1. Release to early access with all current features as a fully playable stable game - basically the current feature set, but with bugs and kinks sorted out. Mainly saving/loading needs to be sorted out.
2. Release updates over the coming months/years until completion of my feature list. - Each new update will remain fully playable, just like Hello Games have achieved.

I have so far achieved an update to alpha at least once per year for 5 years.

Upcoming features (Order may change):
1. Estate agents and building ownership.
2. Shop ownership and manufacturing.
3. A third flyable ship. And more to be added along with feature updates from time to time
4. A weapons update adding at least 4 new weapons. And later updates from time to time.
5. Get multiplayer RPG mode running.(Note, this will be an MRPG, not an MMORPG.)
6. Ship customization update - paint and name your ship.
7. Ship recovery - recover and rebuild your beloved wreck. Visit a scrapyard to scavenge parts.
8. New areas on the map to be released along with features now and then - WoW style.
9. Dynamic economy and better AI trading.

Testing and feedback has been happening on the game's Discord server for all these years. My community have helped with decisions such as which map area to build next, priority of features as well as reporting bugs and providing inspiration/concept art. This will continue as it has been.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The plan is to always to make the game fun and playable during each phase in Early Access.
It is unclear how long the game will take to fully complete. If I could do this full-time, I predict a year or two. Part-time could be anywhere from 4-20 years, depending on what life throws at me.”

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

“Some stuff to look forward to:
- building ownership
- shop ownership
- manufacturing
- dynamic economy
- better AI
- multiplayer RPG & deathmatch
- more weapons
- more upgrades
- more ships
- wreck-recovery
- new cavern area
- new canyon area
- new ice area
- new desert area
- black-market”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Current features and content:
- 3 craters to explore
- 2 ships - Gypsy and Loggerhead for sale
- 5 weapons
- ship upgrades
- AI: basic movement, trading and combat
- Wreck and cargo scavenging
- Trading, upgrading and repairing at shops
- Mining, then selling ore
- AI taxis
- Police, wanted levels and bounty hunting”

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

“We plan to gradually raise the price as we ship new content and features that were out of the scope of the full version description. If the scope doesn't change, the price won't increase.”

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

“The community is welcome to join the Discord server and chat, share ideas and input. Occasionally a poll will be opened to decide on which content to prioritize next.”