Why Early Access?

“I've spent 20+ years in AAA, but this is my first game as a mostly solo developer going indie with my own studio. The most important thing I've learned from that experience, especially most recently on Gorilla Tag, is how important the community is. A game that hasn't launched has no community, and so far only a handful of friends have played this. I need real players, and I especially want real streamers and their viewers to play and give me feedback on what they think is missing, what makes it worth the price, and what features they want me to flesh out more (or abandon). My vision for Stress Buddy is not just a single-player game about balls, it's also a multiplayer game where you get to play with other people's balls, and a game built to put balls on top of whatever a streamer is playing. That only gets good once it's out in the world and people give me feedback. Early Access is how I get feedback from people who actually care.

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Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Around 6 months. I'd like to exit Early Access around the holidays.”

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

“I know the community will want performance and multiplayer improvements so the game plays nice with Windows. I'm writing all the code and only have my own machine to test on, so there are very likely bugs that need fixing. I'd like to have at least one more animated buddy like Fuzzy Buddy. A deeper progression system is something I definitely want to look at, something that rewards you the more you play with each ball. I'll prioritize based on what (nice) players give actual feedback about, so the roadmap I made by myself will evolve. But my goal is a noticeably richer, more performant, and stabler game than on launch day.

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What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Stress Buddy is fully playable today with 15 different balls, collision and interaction with windows, folder icons, and the Recycle Bin (with a bin minigame). Fuzzy Buddy uses a mood state machine. Multiplayer works. And there's a DLC architecture working and tested with the Founders Pack and the Twitch Integration pack. I'm kind of perfectionist, so I think Stress Buddy is polished enough to enjoy right now. So Early Access is about growing it with the players and streamers who care, and fixing stuff I didn't think about because I've never launched anything more-or-less all by myself in my entire career, and I'm certain I missed some important things.

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

“I don't plan to raise the base price when the game leaves Early Access: I might take advantage of the summer sale promotion, though. My plan is to grow the game through DLC packs released on a regular cadence, like we did on Gorilla Tag: I have SO many ideas. The launch "Founders Pack" is a one-time thank-you to the earliest supporters: it'll be retired (with warning) before we exit Early Access, and it won't return. The Twitch Integration pack will be evergreen, but I plan to experiment with bundle pricing of the base game and DLC.

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

“Players will be able to find me in the Discord a lot over the next 6 months. I have always loved player feedback. On Tomb Raider, I created one of the achievements after a community idea was pitched in the forums. On Echo Arena and Gorilla Tag, I constantly listened to player feedback in the forums, on Discord. I even did informal player research in game, asking opinions while pretending not to be a dev. On all my past projects, deciding what to prioritize was a bit of a political game: now I get to implement whatever I think the players most want, without having to negotiate: ideas for balls, feature requests, bug reports, and "wouldn't it be funny if." It's all possible.”