Why Early Access?

“Our studio consist of a single programmer, artist and designer. All of us take additional roles in order to push the game towards it's release. This kind of development environment means that we simply don't have the necessary amount of time for testing.

We can't stress how much we need an external, objective and honest feedback from the community. We want to test all our existing systems and make sure the game is fun at its core.
We need to focus all our energy on development in order to get BUCK to play well and have the right amount of content.
We need a community of players to help us chisel away the rough edges and shape the game according to their feedback. Same as we did with our Kickstarter Backers up until this point.

Speaking of Kickstarter. From the end of our Successful Campaign on July 23rd, we've been having wonderful discussions with our backers on our Discord Server. We've introduced new systems that were suggested and tested by our Kickstarter backers. We want to continue this process with you, right here on Early Access.

Over the course of seven months we've added and tested the following features to BUCK:

• Melee Combat.
  
• Revised Control System.
  
• Complete UI overhaul.
  
• Controller Support.
  
• 3 Additional Levels; The Junkyard, Gutless Gulch and The Anker.
  
• In-game Merchant Shop UI.
  
• Crafting Items and basic recipes.
  
• Quick Item inventory slots.
  
• Loading Screens.
  
• 2 Cinematics.
  
• 60 FPS Optimization.
  
• Fast-Travel Functionality and UI.
  
• In-game interaction Icons with input recognition. (Input changes if game recognizes a controller).
  
• Complete re-binding options menu for Keyboard users.
  
• 4 new music tracks.

The game is much further along in 2017 and we believe that BUCK is finally ready for Early Access.
After our Kickstarter we've released a new build every two months and we aim to reduce that build cycle on Early Access to once a month or even less, depending on the size of the update.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Our goal is to release the final version of BUCK around Q3 2017. Most of the game is performing well but systems like the weapon modification and crafting need exhaustive testing in order to feel rewarding and balanced.

If BUCK performs well on Early Access and if a big enough community becomes involved, we'll add even more content and push the official final release date until both we and the community feel that it is the right time to release the game.

We don't want BUCK to stagnate on Early Access, our goal is to release the final product as soon as both ourselves and the community agree that BUCK is ready.”

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

“BUCK's Early Access launch build includes:

• Exploring half of first Chapter in the game.
  
• Player-Driven dialogues.
  
• Dual-Pistols and Sawed-Off Shotgun as primary weapons.
  
• Basic ranged and melee combat.
  
• 3 different Enemy classes with an average of 3 skins per class.
  
• Looting items from hidden caches and enemies.
  
• Using items in your inventory.
  
• Using fast-travel.
  
• Taking up missions from NPC's.
  
• 15 inventory items.
  
• A Journal to document missions and objectives.
  
• Unlocking Schematics and Blueprints.
  
• Basic Weapon Modification and Crafting systems.
  
• Merchant shop with rare crafting items.
  
• Percentage based loot drops.
  
• Randomized enemy encounters.

Here's what we're hoping to implement into the game during its Early Access run:

• Revised Dialogue System that changes other character behaviors.
  
• Balancing Difficulty.
  
• FIX ALL TYPOS.
  
• Light Camera Movements for Dialogues.
  
• Mac and Linux support.
  
• Two Boss Battles.
  
• Two additional Merchants.
  
• 10 more items.
  
• 3 New weapons for Buck to use - Ranged, melee and hybrid weapon classes.
  
• 4 Upgrades per-weapon.
  
• Completing the first chapter of the story.
  
• Completing the second and final chapter of the story.
  
• Compose the rest of the soundtrack.

In addition we'll need to fix all the bugs, improve performance and polish the game where we can. BUCK might be a small indie game, but with your help we can release a polished game experience with a satisfying amount of content and kick-ass levels of fun.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Everything described on the Early Access launch build is in the game right now. Over the coming months, we'll iterate the game with minor fixes an updates every other week while deploying bigger builds every other month.

We know it's not much, but we only have a single programmer and because we want each update to feel significant, we'll need to make sure we can put out as much content as possible in every iteration.”

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

“The game will be available at a lower price during Early Access, relative to its final full-version retail price. The full retail price will be determined once we see exactly how much content we were able to add into the game during it's Early Access period.”

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

“We use Scrum as our main development method.
This means that tasks are set every other week, which we then attempt to implement into an improved playable build that goes public.

The tasks that didn't make it will move to the next iteration while new tasks are added.
We share our goals for the week and discuss all upcoming content and changes on our Discord Server some development and behind the scenes videos will come along soon to our YouTube channel as well.

Secondly, we'll communicate through our forums, community hub and social media as we've done with our monthly Kickstarter Updates and
Developer Videos.

Thank you for reading! We hope you'll join us on this wild motorcycle ride into the dunes of the wasteland.

Best,
Gal, Amir and Adi - Wave Interactive”