“We have re-structured some parts of the game specifically for early access. What is the current state of the Early Access version? We are also releasing periodic extra missions that are not part of the main story campaign.” Over the course of early access, we plan to introduce new content as blocks of complete missions, ready to play.

Therefore the experience should be similar to the final product. This content is considered to be complete and unlikely to be changed significantly between now and final release (except for bug fixes, performance updates etc). “The early access version includes six (soon eight) stand-alone missions with unique creatures, music and narration as well as a “formicarium” story mode which has three (soon four) devious missions to test your colony. How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? However this can change as game development is by its nature an unpredictable process.” “As of early 2023, we estimate a further 6-18 months of development to reach our version 1.0. We would much rather continue our work in the same manner as we have done for the past year: with the help of our enthusiastic ant-loving community.”Īpproximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

It seems to make little sense holding back the game’s release for months of development whilst we work on additional levels and features. All of these will need balancing, and that process works best with player input. While we are confident about the state of the game’s mechanics, and the amount of playable content currently available, there are additional game modes, creatures and abilities that we are still working on.

We feel this has ultimately resulted in a much better game and we want to continue moving forward with help and suggestions from players, and this has worked so well we're likely to continue that even after early access!Ī side effect of this iterative community focused development, is that whilst we have been putting more time into tweaking the game’s inner workings to create the ideal mix of ant colony realism and compelling gameplay, it has put us behind schedule in terms of producing a final product that we can label complete. “Since releasing our first demo we have received mountains of feedback from the community, which has been constantly shaping the game’s core mechanics and features.

Empire of the undergrowth first mission