Why Early Access?

“Northgrave County is an online survival game, and survival games live or die on balance, pacing and what players actually do together. We have the core loop running on live servers: exploring the county, looting, crafting, building, farming, driving, fighting zombies and surviving the weather. What we need now is a real player base to tell us what works and what does not, so the systems get tuned around how people really play instead of how we think they will.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect to be in Early Access for roughly 12 to 18 months. The exact length depends on how fast the remaining systems come together and on what the community asks for, and we would rather leave Early Access when the game is ready than on a fixed date.”

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

“We plan for the full version to include more of everything that is already in the game: more items, recipes, building pieces, vehicles, clothing and points of interest across the county; more zombie types and behaviours; more world events; deeper farming, cooking and medical systems; and more progression through skills and milestones. We also plan to release the dedicated server files so players can host their own servers, add more server settings for community hosts and more Steam achievements, and keep improving performance and visuals. The exact feature set may change based on player feedback.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The game is playable from start to finish of a survival run on the official dedicated servers. Working today: a 20 x 20 km seeded world with towns, farms, forests and lakes; third-person movement, melee and firearms combat; zombies that see, hear and chase; over 450 lootable items with loot tables; crafting with recipes learned from books and notes; base building with walls, doors, gates, fences, floors, roofs, barricades, storage and traps; a survival model with hunger, thirst, fatigue, stress, pain, temperature, wetness, food spoilage and injuries tracked per body region; farming and rain collection; drivable vehicles; day and night with weather; a character creator; thirteen skills; parties, chat, a map, name tags, sleeping bags and hideouts as respawn points; trading with traders and other players; a server browser with official and community servers; and persistent worlds that keep your progress. Expect bugs, placeholder art in places, balance changes and occasional world resets between major updates. Everything listed in the About section is in the current build, except hosting your own dedicated server, which comes in a later update.”

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

“Yes. The game is priced lower during Early Access as a thank you to the players who join us early. We plan to raise the price when the game leaves Early Access.”

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

“We play on the official servers alongside the community and read everything. Feedback and bug reports come in through the Steam Community forums, our Discord and the in-game bug report, and we publish patch notes with every update, both on Steam and in the game's main menu. Features and balance changes are discussed openly before they ship.”