Why Early Access?

“Soulstonia's core systems are already in place, but many of them are interconnected in ways that are difficult to fully balance through internal testing alone.

Players can actively control their Summoners or leave them to pursue queued goals on their own, while progression spans combat, gathering, crafting, exploration, an economy, and a procedurally generated world. A change to resource yields, item values, equipment stats, XP rates, or enemy difficulty can have effects across several other systems.

Early Access provides the opportunity to see how players actually approach Soulstonia over longer playthroughs. Which skills players train first, which activities progress too quickly or too slowly, where progression stalls, which activities are overlooked, and where procedural generation creates unexpected edge cases are all factors that will be looked at closely.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Soulstonia is currently expected to remain in Early Access for approximately 3 to 6 months.

This is an estimate rather than a fixed release date. The length of Early Access may change depending on development progress, issues uncovered by players, and the scope of improvements prioritized during Early Access.”

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

“The Early Access version contains the core Soulstonia experience across all five regions, with the major gameplay systems already implemented. Development toward the full version is planned to focus primarily on expanding content, progression, balance, and polish rather than replacing the core game.

Planned additions include more side quests, higher-level items and crafting progression, additional enemies, expanded Points of Interest and dynamic events, Guilds, and a major boss encounter for each of Soulstonia's five regions.

XP rates, resource yields, combat difficulty, drop rates, shop prices, equipment stats, the economy, and other interconnected systems are also expected to continue being iterated upon based on Early Access feedback.

The Shadow Realm, one of Soulstonia's alternate Realms, is currently planned alongside the full release. Additional Realms are planned as optional paid DLC later on.

These plans and priorities may change as development continues and players identify new or different areas that would benefit more from additional attention.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version contains Soulstonia’s feature-complete core gameplay experience across all five regions. The main campaign spans 50+ quests along the golden path, alongside exploration, side content, skill progression, collection, idle goals, and leaderboards.

All 18 core skills are playable up to level 99, including melee, ranged, magic, and summoning combat. Players can recruit and manage parties of up to 5 Summoners, either controlling them directly or assigning idle goals that allow them to gather resources, craft items, bank goods, fight enemies, and collect loot autonomously.

Each save generates a different five-region world with procedurally placed villages, roads, resources, enemies, NPCs, quests, landmarks, and Points of Interest. Exploration includes fog of war, Waypoints, item and object discovery, and more than 60 creature species, 60 Soulstones, and 30 spells.

Early Access is primarily focused on balance, polish, and additional content. Combat difficulty, XP rates, equipment, magic, resource yields, item values, shop prices, and the wider economy are expected to evolve. The full release is also planned to expand higher-level progression, side quests, Points of Interest, dynamic events, Guilds, and regional boss encounters.

Early Access save games are planned to remain compatible through updates and into the full release.”

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

“No. The base game is planned to remain free-to-play during Early Access and after the full release.

Optional purchases including the Supporter Pack, Original Soundtrack, Save Slot Expansion, and Summoner Expansion are planned to be available during Early Access, as well as mounts and additional bank tabs purchasable in-game as microtransactions.

Additional optional paid DLC is also planned as Soulstonia expands, including future Realms. Purchasing additional content will not be required to continue playing the free base game.

The price of the base game is not currently planned to change when Soulstonia leaves Early Access.”

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

“Community feedback will help guide development priorities throughout Early Access. Feedback will be gathered through Steam discussions, Discord, player surveys, reviews, bug reports, playtests, and an in-game Give Feedback button, alongside regular development updates and patch notes.

The main focus will be on progression, balance, and usability: which skills players choose to train, where progression slows down, which activities are overlooked, and how systems such as combat, equipment, magic, resource gathering, drop rates, shop prices, and the wider economy feel over longer playthroughs. Procedural generation feedback will also be especially valuable for identifying unusual world seeds and edge cases that may be difficult to encounter through internal testing.

Gameplay statistics such as skill XP, enemies defeated, quests completed, trees chopped, and Colossal enemies defeated will help provide additional context for that feedback. Combining player reports with broader gameplay patterns should make it easier to identify where the game is working well and where changes would have the greatest impact.

Development priorities may change when recurring community feedback identifies an area that needs attention more urgently than something already planned. Feedback submitted through Steam, Discord, surveys, reviews, and bug reports will be personally reviewed throughout Early Access.”