Why Early Access?

“Early Access will allow me as a solo developer to retain full creative control of the game without involving a publisher. Feedback from players at an early stage would be very much appreciated in order to guide the direction of the finished game and to have a wider base for testing and any helpful ideas and suggestions. As a solo developer I have a very clear vision of how I anticipate the final game to be, but obviously a lot of issues in VR are hard to anticipate from other players perspectives. It would be useful to get an idea of how others are experiencing the game as development progresses and to be able to respond to any issues and fix/fine tune accordingly to make it as accessible and entertaining as possible.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The game is planned to be released in early access for Halloween 2022, with final release aimed at Halloween 2024. Even once the game is complete I plan to continue releasing more and more content to keep the game fresh and up to date as technology and hardware improves in the VR scene. I expect to be pushing out regular updates throughout the Early Access period.”

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

“The final game will grow larger in scope with more areas to explore, more weapons to collect and a much bigger variety of enemies. There will be ongoing improvements to AI, animation, level layout and design throughout Early Access and these updates will be pushed out on a regular ongoing basis.

The final boss battle will not be included until final game release.

It's important to note that the game does not feature hands, melee or interactive object handling. This is by design rather than technical limitaions and there are no current plans to introduce those features as I feel they would be detrimental to gameplay. I'm not ruling them out completely but it's a design choice at this stage.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“In it's current Early Access state the core gameplay mechanics and gameplay loop are in place. There are a number of different enemies to fight including several different zombie types with varying degrees of difficulty. Beware of the werewolves! The Grim Reaper will hunt you in the graveyard. When he is close time will slow, which you can learn to use to your advantage.

The rest of the graveyard will start to open up and become available in updates throughout early access.

Throughout the cemetery the Grim Reaper will stalk and hunt you down. Be careful....you can only bullet time dance with him for so long before he takes your soul.

Graphically the game is at or close to expected final quality and is optimised to run pretty well on the lowest spec machines listed. Mostly the development during Early Access will be to add more content, grow the playable area and further optimise the game.

The game has been shown at Gamers Unite as a hands on playable where it received an enormous amount of positive feedback and several offers from publishers. So I am confident most players will enjoy the game in it's current Early Access form. It's important to play it seated.

Beasts Shall Rise has a fully integrated weather system as well as day and night cycles. The game will randomly choose a time of day when you start each game.

If you dare to play Beasts Shall Rise after midnight the game will enter Midnight Madness Mode. There are various surprise versions of Midnight Madness including Black and White mode. The game is designed to be highly re-playable and full of random surprises.

The game utilises a sophisticated Motion Matching animation system (as seen in The Last of Us 2) and fully motion captured performances which provide highly realistic, fluid, immersive and unpredictable enemy movement.”

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

“The game is expected go up in price after leaving Early Access, and pricing may also change during Early Access as more and more content is added. So I would advise buying it sooner than later.”

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

“Players and those interested in finding out more about the game are encouraged to visit The Beasts Shall Rise Facebook Page where I am always very happy and quick to answer any questions and respond to feedback: https://www.facebook.com/BeastsShallRise/

I would also encourage people to voice their ideas and suggestions on the Steam Page Discussion Board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/963720/discussions/”