Why Early Access?

“Barry Has a Secret (chapter one) was created in 3 days for ludum dare 41 "make a game in 72 hours contest" and after 10 days being out there, game become the Top game at itch.io and was viewed by over 3 million people via youtube.

Universal feedback that we saw was: "I want to see the next chapter" (in addition to "fix those darned arms").

Instead of fixing the arms, we thought we need to bring the next Chapter.

And the best way to do this is via Steam early access.

And before we get all the Chapters done, we will stay in very-very-very early access.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“3-6 months.”

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

“Current version contains one chapter, about 30 minutes of gameplay.

Full version contains several new chapters/locations to complete. We aim for 5-10 hours of gameplay.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“First chapter was created in May 2018.

Next chapter is work-in-progress.”

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

“Yep. Price will increase when we leave early access.”

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

“We'd love to get army of "co-designers" to help flesh out the game.

The core gameplay elements (arms behavior, picking up items system, having very few controls, camera angle, physics based "puzzle" elements) are going to remain. We'd love to get feedback on everything, to polish to core elements and make game a fun experience. All the feedback is very much appreciated.

The first chapter contains almost all the planned gameplay elements. If you like the first chapter, then expect to see "more the same" with the following chapters, where Barry's true secret will be revealed.

Community gets to play and playtest new chapters before anyone else. Plan is to get 1-2 new chapters out roughly every 2 weeks. With about 10 new chapters, that means about 10 weeks of development.

(And because this is software development everybody knows it will take another 10 weeks to polish everything.)

After the 10 chapters are done, the final chapter will take additional 2-4 weeks to complete and by the time it is released, game exits Early access.

The total development is planned to take about 3-4 months if things go as planned (and up to 6 months in a non-optimal scenario).”