Why Early Access?

“Early Access is the right fit for Choose Your Paul because the core run-based auto-battler experience is already playable and fun, but the game’s long-term quality depends on real player feedback on balance, build variety, progression pacing, and content priorities. With many units, trainers, synergies, and run-shaping choices, the best direction for the game will come from seeing how players actually experiment, what feels strong or weak, and which parts of the run are most enjoyable or need improvement. Early Access will let the game grow in a focused way while the core foundation is already in place.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“About 2-4 Months”

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

“I plan to make units and build synergies more fun, distinct, and better balanced in the full version. I also plan to expand the game in focused, necessary ways that deepen tactical decision-making and improve replayability.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is currently in a prototype/pre-release state. The core auto-battler loop is playable, but the project is still being actively developed and stabilized, with key release-readiness work still incomplete, including battle flow reliability, progression handoff, smoke testing across all run outcomes, UI polish, and naming consistency. In its current form, it is better described as a deep prototype or demo-quality build rather than a finished release or formally defined Early Access version.

Auto Slayer is currently a run-based auto-battler where the player chooses a trainer, follows a branching map of combat, elite, boss, shop, rest, training, and event nodes, then builds a team through captures, rewards, equipment, snacks, artifacts, and positioning choices. Battles play out automatically with frontline/backline behavior, status effects, resonance bonuses, damage/healing summaries, and a trainer-specific Tactic Deck that auto-plays cards at turn start to push each trainer toward a distinct strategy, such as control, direct damage, buffs, poison/frozen pressure, summons, or long-run HP growth. The current build has a stable full-run loop with victory, defeat, abandon, restart, save/resume, settings persistence, onboarding hints, and help/glossary support in place, while broader content expansion and deeper archetype tuning remain future work.
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Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“No.”

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

“We plan to involve the community throughout Early Access by actively collecting feedback and using it to shape the game's development priorities. Players will be able to share bug reports, balance feedback, quality-of-life requests, and feature suggestions through Steam Discussions, and we may also use Discord and community polls for more direct communication and testing.

Community feedback will have a real impact on the direction of development. During Early Access, player input will help us prioritize balance changes, progression tuning, usability improvements, and which new content or features should be developed first. We will pay close attention to recurring feedback and common problem areas, then use that information to guide updates.

We also plan to post regular development updates so players can see what we are working on, what feedback we are acting on, and what we want tested next. Not every suggestion will be implemented, but the community will play a major role in helping us improve the game and decide where to focus development during Early Access.”