Why Early Access?

“Hollow Cedar is built around systems that only really prove themselves once a lot of people are playing them at the same time: NPC recruitment, reputation, companions, and long-term base ownership across a full seasonal cycle. We can test those internally, but we cannot simulate how hundreds of players will use them, stress them, or find the gaps in them.

Early Access lets us put the world in players' hands while there is still time to change it. We want feedback on survival balance, on how reputation ripples out through the world, on how PvE and PvPvE servers feel to run and to play on, and on which threads of the story people actually choose to follow.

We are a very small team, and building in the open gives us a far better game than developing in silence and hoping we guessed correctly.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan for Hollow Cedar to be in Early Access for approximately 18 months.

That is our current estimate rather than a fixed schedule. If feedback tells us a system needs more time, we would rather take that time than leave Early Access to hit a date. We will share progress with the community as we go, and we will say so publicly if that estimate needs to change.”

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

“Early Access begins with the core loop and a playable slice of the world. From there, our plans are to grow the game outward rather than to change what it fundamentally is.

We plan to:

Extend the main story through to its conclusion, and add further optional story content around it
Add more NPCs and companions, with more voiced dialogue and more distinct personalities
Expand the range of wildlife and other creatures that populate the world
Broaden the crafting, weapon and gear pools, along with the recipes that support them
Add further locations and points of interest across the map
Continue refining survival, seasonal and reputation balance based on how people actually play
Improve visuals, audio and performance throughout
Bring the game to console, subject to certification

The scope above reflects our intentions and priorities. What we build, and in what order, will be shaped by what the community tells us matters most.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Hollow Cedar is playable end to end as a survival experience, on an 8 sq km hand sculpted open world of mountains, forest, lakes, rivers, abandoned towns, industrial ruin and coastline.

Currently in the build:

Crafting, base building and survival stats
A full weather system, including overcast, fog, wind and thunderstorms, with a live temperature readout
A full seasonal cycle, with crops gated by season
Death caches, which bury your belongings where you fell
NPC recruitment, with recruits maintaining and defending your base
A companion system, with companions tending crops, filling turrets, keeping fires burning and fighting alongside you
Reputation, with your actions rippling out into how the world treats you
Story driven levelling, stealth missions and wildlife
PvE and PvPvE server options
Full controller support

The story is partially implemented, and later chapters are still being built. Balance across survival, seasons and reputation is actively being tuned, and some art and audio remain work in progress. Expect rough edges. That is the point of Early Access, and reporting them is genuinely useful to us.”

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

“We are not currently planning to change the price when we leave Early Access.”

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

“The community is the reason we are doing Early Access rather than a closed development cycle.

We plan to:

Run an active Discord where players can report bugs, raise balance concerns and talk directly to the team
Post regular development updates covering what we are working on, what has changed and why
Maintain a public roadmap, and use community feedback to help prioritise what we tackle next
Run playtests for upcoming features before they go live to everyone
Invite the community to contribute directly to parts of the world, including naming NPCs and helping shape new items
Read and respond to Steam discussions and reviews

We will not always be able to act on every suggestion, and some decisions will stay with us for story and design reasons. But nothing here is decided in a vacuum. If a system is not working for the people playing it, we want to hear that early.”