Why Early Access?

“Castle of Smash is built around interconnected systems: deck construction, real-time lane combat, tactical pausing, enemy behavior, commander abilities, relics, potions, progression, and branching encounters. These systems benefit greatly from being tested by a wider range of players and playstyles.

The core game is playable, but Early Access will allow me to improve balance, difficulty progression, encounter variety, usability, and long-term replayability using direct player feedback and gameplay data.

I want the final version to be shaped not only by whether players win or lose, but also by whether battles feel fair, strategic, understandable, and satisfying. Early Access provides an opportunity to identify weak strategies, overly dominant combinations, unclear mechanics, repetitive encounters, and frustrating difficulty spikes before the full release.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“I currently expect Castle of Smash to remain in Early Access for approximately 2 to 5 months.

This is an estimate rather than a fixed deadline. The length of Early Access may change depending on player feedback, the amount of balancing required, technical issues discovered during testing, and the scope of improvements that prove valuable to the game.

I intend to move to full release when the game’s progression, encounter variety, balance, presentation, stability, and overall replayability meet the standard I have set for the finished version.”

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

“The full version is planned to expand and refine the existing game rather than replace its core structure.

Planned areas of development include:

• Additional cards, units, relics, potions, encounters, and enemy formations
• Greater variety across runs and tower environments
• More handcrafted events and meaningful route choices
• Additional balancing for commanders, decks, rewards, and difficulty levels
• Improved enemy decision-making and encounter pacing
• Expanded progression and unlockable content
• Better tutorials, explanations, and onboarding for new players
• Continued improvements to interface clarity, visual presentation, sound, and animation
• Additional accessibility and quality-of-life options
• Performance improvements, bug fixes, and greater overall stability

The final scope may evolve in response to community feedback. Features will be prioritized according to how strongly they improve the strategic depth, clarity, fairness, and replayability of the existing game.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version contains the core Castle of Smash gameplay loop and is intended to support complete, replayable runs.

Players can choose from multiple commanders, construct and improve a deck, and fight real-time battles across five lanes. Battles can be paused to examine the field, deploy multiple cards, reposition pending deployments, use potions, and prepare coordinated responses.

The current version includes:

• Real-time five-lane card battles
• Tactical pausing and multi-card deployment
• Units, skills, mana sources, and enchantments
• Multiple commanders with distinct abilities and starting strategies
• Branching runs containing battles, elite encounters, shops, rest sites, events, and bosses
• Card rewards, upgrades, relics, potions, and persistent unlocks
• Multiple enemy factions, castles, battlefields, and unit abilities
• Difficulty options and adaptive enemy systems
• Save and load functionality
• Run data collection tools for voluntary playtesting feedback

The game is still under active development. Players should expect balance changes, interface revisions, rewritten encounters, content additions, progression adjustments, and occasional bugs.

Some areas—particularly encounter variety, final balancing, onboarding, presentation, and long-term progression—will continue to be expanded and refined throughout Early Access.”

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

“No”

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

“Community feedback will be a central part of Castle of Smash’s Early Access development.

I plan to use Steam Discussions, player reviews, structured feedback questions, playtesting sessions, and optional run-data reports to understand how players experience the game.

Feedback will be especially valuable in evaluating:

• Whether losses feel fair and understandable
• Whether players can identify decisions they could have made differently
• Which commanders, cards, relics, and strategies feel too strong or too weak
• Whether each difficulty level provides an appropriate challenge
• Which encounters feel exciting, repetitive, confusing, or frustrating
• Whether players have meaningful opportunities to recover from disadvantage
• Whether tutorials and interface elements communicate important information clearly
• Which combinations and playstyles players find most satisfying

I intend to publish update notes explaining significant changes and the reasoning behind them. Community suggestions will be considered alongside gameplay data and the overall design direction of the game.

Not every requested feature will necessarily be added, but feedback will directly influence balance priorities, quality-of-life improvements, encounter design, accessibility, and the order in which unfinished parts of the game are addressed.”