Why Early Access?

“The HinterLands is a game aimed at people wanting to contribute to a games development, and for those who want to learn from it. It has grown a lot already due to player feedback, and community input helps shape how the game evolves over time.

The Hinterlands needs a lot more work put into it before it is finished. The basic game play works well (mining, crafting, exploring, multiplayer, attacking and collecting), as well as some of the tools to create content (most content is saved externally, including items, tiles, text).

But if you're interested in game development, want advice or feedback, or would like portions of the gameplay to go open sourced eventually so you can learn or improve it, just let me know!

It's just me and my wife developing the game, so progress is slow, but if you want to add anything into the game, there is a high chance of it being added (items, tiles, mobs, ect), and all ideas will be considered.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The HinterLands will stay in early access until the initial experience is complete. This includes quests, multiple biomes, many bosses, NPC's, scripted events, several multiplayer game modes, and modding tools. Once the game can stand on its own, I'll be able to work on additional content: new biomes /npcs/bosses/ quests.
So it depends on how much interest there is in the game. If a lot of people are interested, it could be finished in a year. If there aren't as many, it could take several years (it's mainly just me working on the project).”

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

“The full version will have many quests, mobs, biomes, crafting recipes, and a lot of the elements will be beyond merely 'functional'.

The early access game is to just get all of the required elements into the game that are necessary to be able to just work on content. The full version will use that framework to build out a complete, enjoyable story.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The HinterLands is completely playable, but still has bugs, and needs almost everything "tweaked". You can run around, mine everything, build anything from those blocks, fight and harvest several mobs, play multiplayer together over LAN, on public servers, or even with mobile devices (Android and iOS currently).

But it is missing a lot as well- the UI is just made to be functional, there are no quests, no character leveling, not a wide variety of objectives, npcs, mobs or enemies yet.

Mainly just building, mining, killing mobs, playing with other people, and contributing to the development of the game.”

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

“The price will initially be set low, because the game isn't complete, and I would like as many people as possible to be able to contribute to the games development, and hopefully learn something as well to help them with their future projects.

As the game becomes more complete, the price will go up, to be competitive with similarly scoped products on steam.”

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

“The main driving factor for what gets added to the game is based on player feedback, and contributions.

You can give feedback in many ways:

On the forums:
http://ackmi.com/forum/

Poll for what you'd want to see in the game:
http://goo.gl/forms/GDEkMTVjgn

On the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Ackmi/

I keep regular progress updates on the facebook page, but can make some write-ups on the blog if there is something in the game you're interested about how it works.”