Why Early Access?

“The core game is complete and fun right now. The 10-minute survival loop works. The boss encounters land. The meta-progression hooks. We're not in Early Access because the game isn't ready — we're here because we have a larger vision that we want to build with players, not in isolation.

The full version of Totally Hellish Chaos will be a much deeper experience: more characters, more stages, more weapons, more modes, and a story layer that runs underneath the chaos. That kind of expansion takes time to build well, and player feedback during Early Access will sharpen every part of it. We want to know which weapons feel broken in the bad way, which enemy patterns feel unfair versus genuinely hard, and which parts of the meta-progression feel good to chase. That information can only come from real players in real runs.

If you're the kind of player who likes watching a game grow and having a real influence on how it gets there — this is the right time to get in.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Approximately 12 to 18 months from EA launch. Our working target for the 1.0 release is late 2027.

This is a working target, not a promise. We're a very small team. If the timeline slips, we'll tell you — with a specific reason, not a vague "soon." You'll never hear silence. You'll hear "we moved content drop 5 from November to December because of X." ”

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

“The Early Access version is a complete survival game. The 1.0 version is a much deeper one.

Here's the direction we're heading between EA and 1.0:

Characters — additional playable characters, each with a unique starting weapon and a trait that meaningfully shifts how runs feel. We plan to ship them in waves alongside content drops, not all at once.

Stages — additional fully playable stages with their own enemy mixes, environmental hazards, and boss fights. We plan to vary the spatial register across stages — tight corridors, low-visibility horror, open arenas — so each one is a distinct experience.

Weapons — the arsenal grows on both sides: more base weapons and more of their evolved (infused) counterparts. Build variety is the goal, not raw count.

Enemies — more regular enemies, more elite (rare) variants with guaranteed rare-passive drops, more mini-bosses, and more full bosses. The bestiary expands in tiers across content drops, not in one release.

Game Modes — additional modes built around different ways to engage with the same systems: longer-form endless runs, daily-seed shared challenges, modifier-stack challenge runs, and a buff-and-drawback arcana-style mode.

Achievements — the achievement set will expand significantly.

The hidden narrative layer — there's a story running underneath the humor of THC. In Early Access you'll feel it without fully understanding it. We plan to resolve it over the course of the road to 1.0. We're not going to spoil more than that here.

We plan to ship all of this. We aren't promising specifics — if a planned character doesn't feel right after playtesting and gets cut, we'll tell you why. If a stage gets reworked, we'll tell you why. If we add something we hadn't planned, we'll tell you why we did. ”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is stable, feature-complete for Survival mode, and tested on clean Windows machines before every push.

What ships at EA launch:

One fully playable stage with nine escalating waves and a 10-minute timer. Two full boss fights — each with multiple phases, screen-wide health bars, and distinct phase-transition behavior. Two playable characters with distinct starting weapons and traits.

A weapon system with multiple base weapons (each with six upgrade levels) plus their evolved "infused" forms unlocked via specific weapon-plus-passive combinations. Dozens of passive items with stacking synergies. A bestiary including ranged enemies, stationary nests, summoners, and a range of standard threats. Three difficulty modes. A full meta-progression system with persistent currency and permanent stat upgrades. Dynamic music that escalates across the wave count. Full HUD with wave timer, XP bar, weapon display, health bar, and currency tracker. A collection screen tracking every weapon, passive, enemy, and boss you've encountered.

Things we know will evolve during EA: balance (weapons, enemies, and XP curves respond to real-run telemetry), any bugs discovered in live play, and UI improvements based on player feedback. Our run-logging system lets us respond to balance issues quickly — every run generates a telemetry summary we can analyze.”

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

“Yes. We plan to gradually raise the price as we ship new content and features.

The Early Access price reflects the game's current state and is set deliberately low — partly because that's honest for an EA, partly because we want players in early. By 1.0, the price will be meaningfully higher, reflecting the expanded content that ships between EA launch and full release.

Players who buy during Early Access get all future updates — including the full 1.0 game — at no additional cost.”

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

“Three channels:

Steam Community forum — we read every post. If you find a bug, report it there. If you have a balance take, post it there.

Discord — direct line to the developer. We run feedback threads around each content drop, post work-in-progress clips, and occasionally ask the community to weigh in on decisions before we commit to them.

Public roadmap — we publish a content roadmap and update it after every drop. When something slips or changes scope, we post a dedicated update explaining what changed and why. You will never see a vague announcement. You'll see specifics.

Big feature decisions during EA — whether to ship a planned mode, whether to expand a specific character's trait, whether to prioritize a content drop over a polish pass — will be discussed with the community before we commit. We don't promise to do everything players ask. We do promise to listen and explain our reasoning when we don't.

We also ship opt-in run telemetry. If you leave it on, your run data (anonymous) helps us tune balance. If you turn it off, nothing is collected. Either is fine.
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