Why Early Access?

“Catacrawl is a roguelike, and in a roguelike the balance IS the game. Which skills are worth taking, which builds break the difficulty curve, how fast the ladder should climb, which monster is unfair rather than hard - those are design decisions, and one person playing his own game cannot make them well. I have my own way of playing and it is not yours.

So the goal is concrete: use Early Access runs to rebuild the skill trees and the difficulty ladder around how people actually play, and to decide what gets built next with the people who will play it. There is plenty still to build. Early Access ships with three stages and three cat classes; two more stages are already in development, more cats come after them, and there is no endless tier past Hell yet. How many of each the finished game ends up with - and which one arrives first - is exactly the kind of thing I want to settle with the people playing it rather than guess at now.

I am committing to the marathon: work on this every week, a Steam announcement with every build saying what changed and why, and a 1.0 that is a bigger and better balanced game than this one.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Around three months, though I would rather take longer than release something half-finished. The plan is a substantial update every few weeks - content, plus the balance changes the previous update's feedback asked for.”

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

“The full version adds the two stages that are still in development - the White Cube, a museum where the exhibits fight back, and The Feed - each with their own monsters, bosses, traps and music. It adds more cat classes, each with its own animations and three skill trees of its own; which ones they are, how many, and in what order they arrive is something I want to work out with the community rather than promise today. It adds an endless tier past Hell for players who have cleared the ladder, and more uniques, boons and quest types.

And it will have a different balance to this version. The skill trees and the difficulty ladder are going to be reworked over Early Access on the strength of real runs, and after 1.0 I want them settled rather than moving every patch.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Three stages - the Fairy Forest, the Desert and the Abyss - each with their own monsters, two bosses, traps, music and side quests, playable on three difficulties. Three cat classes with 91 skills across nine skill trees and Diablo-style synergies between them. Level-up boons, loot with affixes and uniques, defend zones, shrines, a meta-progression shop between runs, a tutorial, achievements, Steam Cloud saves, leaderboards and controller support. A run is ten to fourteen minutes - the final boss arrives at ten - and clearing the whole ladder takes most players well over ten hours.

Three stages and three classes are what Early Access starts with: the other cats on the character screen are locked, and two more stages are in development and not in this build. The balance of the later difficulties has had far more testing from me than from anyone else, and it will change - sometimes enough that a build you liked plays differently after an update. That is what this phase is for.”

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

“Yes. Catacrawl costs less during Early Access than it will at 1.0 - the price rises as the stages and classes arrive. Everyone who buys during Early Access gets all of it at no extra cost, and any increase will be announced here before it happens.”

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

“The Steam Discussions are the main channel and I read all of it. Three ways it reaches the build:

Votes on what comes next. Before each major update the candidates - which class, which stage - go up as a poll, and I build the winner.

Balance from real runs. Every run records what killed you, what you had built and how long you lasted. If you switch telemetry on in the settings the game sends that record - the run itself and, if you allow it, your Steam name and account id - and that is what the difficulty and the skill trees get tuned against. It is off until you say yes and everything works with it off.

Patch notes that answer people. When a change comes out of a thread, the announcement says so.

Bug reports, build ideas and "this skill is useless" posts all belong in the Discussions. There is also a community link on this page.”