Why Early Access?

“Screen Pet Engine is a creative game at heart, and creation game get good by watching people actually create with them. Early Access puts the sprite importer, sheet slicer, and visual behavior graph in front of real makers using art we'd never think to test, and lets them tell us which behaviors(new node type), formats, and quality-of-life touches to build next. As a solo developer, I'd rather shape the roadmap with the community than guess at it in the dark.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Roughly 6 to 12 months. The plan is to grow the behavior set, prop interactions, and importer around what players actually ask for, so the finish line follows the work rather than a fixed countdown. Getting it right matters more than hitting a specific day.”

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

“The full version aims to go wider and deeper: more behavior nodes and richer logic on the graph, multi-state props and objects for pets to interact with, more ready-to-run pets in the box, an expanded importer, and the features most requested during Early Access. The core creation loop is already here, so 1.0 is about depth, polish, and community-led additions.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The core is stable and fully usable today. Run the built-in pets right away, or make custom: import PNGs, GIFs, or sprite sheets, slice sheets with smart grid detection, and wire behaviors: Start, End, Idle, Walk, Random, on a visual node graph, no code. Pets walk, idle, and tumble with drag-and-fall physics across your real desktop, and Focus Mode makes them click-through so they never block your work. It runs natively on macOS and Windows in five languages.

Also we have planned to at least add more 10+ action nodes and provide the interaction to object function in early access release.”

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

“Screen Pet Engine is an affordable one-time purchase, and Early Access is the cheapest time to jump in. As major features land, the price may rise modestly toward the 1.0 release, and everyone who buys during Early Access keeps every update at no extra cost.

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

“Development happens in the open. The Discord is where players share the pets they make, report bugs, and weigh in on what to build next, and I post work-in-progress and devlogs as features take shape. Community creations steer the roadmap directly, the behaviors and import features people reach for most are the ones that get built first.”