Why Early Access?

“Nest Rivals is built around autonomous creatures, competing colonies and a changing environment. The core simulation and the first part of the campaign are already playable, but the game around these systems is still evolving.

Early Access gives us the opportunity to develop the campaign alongside the simulation: adding and refining stages, encounters and environmental challenges while seeing how players actually build, explore, fight and adapt.

We are particularly interested in which situations create meaningful decisions and unexpected stories, where the simulation becomes too predictable or difficult to understand, and how well the campaign introduces its systems without explaining everything upfront. Player feedback and playtest data will help us decide which parts need more depth, which interactions are worth expanding and how the overall experience should develop.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We currently expect Nest Rivals to remain in Early Access for roughly 6–12 months. This is an estimate rather than a fixed release date, as the scope and priorities may change based on development progress and player feedback.”

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

“We plan for the full version to offer a broader and more varied campaign, with more stages, situations and combinations of the game’s species, environments and simulation systems.

During Early Access, we plan to expand and refine the situations colonies can face, develop environmental threats and interactions further, and give existing systems such as colony behaviour, combat, survival, expansion and exploration more depth. We also plan to continue developing the campaign structure and longer-term progression between its stages.

The illustrated Bestiary is planned to grow alongside the game, preserving discoveries across worlds while gradually revealing more about its creatures, species and environments.

The exact scope and structure of these additions may evolve during Early Access. Player feedback and observed play patterns will help determine which systems we expand, change or simplify on the way to the full version.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current development build includes the core single-player colony simulation and an evolving campaign. Players can take direct control of individual slimes while the other inhabitants of their colony act autonomously, gather and transport food, explore the world, defend themselves and support the growth of their colony.

Players can establish and expand underground nests, collect nectar to gain new founding rights, encounter rival species and progress through campaign stages built around different worlds and simulation challenges.

Procedural environments, multiple biomes, weather, a day-night cycle, species-specific survival conditions, combat, exploration and the illustrated Bestiary are already implemented. The campaign, its stages, balancing and longer-term progression are still being expanded and may change substantially during Early Access.”

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

“We currently expect the price to increase for the full release. The timing and amount of any increase have not yet been decided.”

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

“Players will be able to share feedback and suggestions through the Steam Community and our Discord community. Nest Rivals also includes an optional in-game feedback system designed to make reporting problems and sharing observations during play straightforward.

We are particularly interested in how colonies and their autonomous inhabitants behave during real play: which campaign stages create interesting decisions, which systems players engage with or ignore, where unexpected strategies emerge, and where the simulation feels too slow, predictable, difficult or unclear.

We plan to combine this qualitative feedback with anonymised playtest telemetry to understand how the game is actually played and where players encounter difficulties or leave a stage. These observations will help us set priorities for campaign stages, balancing, usability and the simulation systems themselves.

Bug reports are valuable, but community involvement is intended to go beyond finding and fixing problems: we want to learn which parts of Nest Rivals are worth developing further.”