Why Early Access?

“As a solo developer there are many things to work on and a lot on my mind, so I find Early Access crucial for MFTK:Survivors. I want this game to be something special and, as creative and perfect I may be, nothing beats having an active community giving valuable feedback. With this much planned content ahead, it will make a world of difference in whether it becomes an okay or great experience.

So, whether it's balancing, mechanics, art, quality of life features or bug reports: you can put the feedback in the bag, I want it.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“I’m hoping six months. Which means, most likely it’ll be a year. I will continue to expand the game until it reaches the level of content, polish and replayability expected from a full release.”

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

“The planned full release version could be described as the current state plus the following:

- Construct your vessels (characters/classes), not only the visuals but the mechanics too.
- At least: 50 character looks, 30 traits, 10 skills, and 20 weapons.
- Multiple levels of Meta-Progression running on top of one another.
- Procedurally generated maps with obstacles. At least 20 different "biomes" and a pool of 20 mission objectives. Customizable mapping traits. Increase variety of map decorations (plants, etc)
- Increased variety of Destructibles and Interactables found in runs.
- Campaigns and other conquest-related mechanics.
- At least 50 unique enemies, 10 bosses and 10 enemy "families".
- Increased item depth and variety. Procedural items. At least 30 uniques.
- Character equipment (ARPG style, on top of the classic survivors-like 6 and 6).
- Mild inventory management, mild strategic choices on galactic conquest-map.
- Systems allowing emergent gameplay and choices.
- Customize your lair and engage with Gacha style mechanics for collecting stuff.
- Adding a hardcore / permadeath profile mode.
- Potentially add sprite animations to characters and enemies, and make those optional in settings.
- Add options for covering partial nudity, aka streamer mode. Currently the nudity is only present in the North-West of the Frozen Steppes map.
- High quality sound and music mixing and mastering. 45-minute soundtrack.
- Cinematics, still unclear if fully 2D or a combination of 2D and 3D.
- Proper profile management, basically save-slots so you can have multiple progressions (Is technically done already but I found bugs).
- I Aim to provide enough content for at least 70-100 hours of gameplay. Subjective of course, not everyone plays a game the same amount of time.
- Steam Achievements and Steam Cloud. Maybe Steam Leaderboards?
- Add controller support and accessibility options (specially vision/color related).
- Proper translations into Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“You like raw? Cause this is RAW.
The core survivors-style gameplay for runs is already functional, performs well and feels satisfying as you mow through the hordes. When I call the game "raw" I'm mostly talking about content and depth. As far as I'm concerned, the game is currently in a pre-alpha state.
I work on the game full-time and updates happen daily or every other day.

Currently, as of July, 1st, I got:

- 6 player body/vessel graphics to choose from.
- 5 non-procedural, handcrafted maps to do runs in.
- 1 handcrafted, non-customizable lair/hub map. Access to character looks change and map selection.
- 6 weapons.
- 10 artifacts.
- 12 different enemies (4 unique movement styles, 2 behaviours).
- You kill stuff, you gain XP, you level up, you pick from random choices for weapons & upgrades. Also got chests, they don't look pretty yet, but they work ;)
- A main menu, with a simple configuration window for audio and keys.
- I had a whole save-file system already in, but I'm refactoring/remaking it. I been taking it as secondary because there's no meta-progression present yet.

Meta-progression, variety and depth are the whole point of the genre, but I chose performance and the combat first.

There's been a lot of tiny details which kept sending me off the road map. I'm focused on adding more weapons and pickups. Then, getting the upgrade shop and destructibles ready, and adding more sfx, vfx, and a series of mechanics for objectives, capturing control points, more enemy behaviors and just overall proper variety.”

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

“Yes, I will increase the price gradually as more content, polish and features are added. The plan is to make those increases happen alongside actual dev-stage milestones (alpha, beta, pre-release, etc).”

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

“As I previously mentioned, community feedback is crucial to help shape the game and future content priorities throughout Early Access.

I monitor both the Steam forums and the official Discord server, where we can discuss mechanics, balance, suggestions, bug reports and future ideas more directly.

I work on the game full-time and plan to remain active with regular updates, changelogs and communication through those mediums as development continues. Some days end with more tangible results than others so, In this case, "regular" means daily to weekly.”