Early Access. Your experiences.

[Daisjun]

I only just recently decided to flick back through my Steam library and found that it is unfortunately peppered with broken promises and money that I could've spent on beer. Here are my early access experiences.

I completely wasted my money
DayZ: Showed a lot of promise, was deterred after item persistence was introduced, making loot impossible to find without 3 hours of holding down the run key. Tool up, only to run down a flight of stairs too fast, glitch, die, lose everything, ad-infinitum. Zombie mechanics are still a joke, basically just an FPS only you have to wait 5 hours between every fight.
ARK: To be honest I haven't played much of this, but from what I've read it's not really worth the bother. Lack of updates, they recently broke the game and they have terrible comms with their community.
Next Car Game: Wreckfest: I'm torn about this one. One the one hand the physics engine is amazing, but the ridiculous development time and the fact that I paid $40US for it (I nearly had a heart attack when I went back and checked how much I'd actually paid) put it in this category.

I hold minor hope
7 Days to Die: Only started playing this recently but was rather impressed, genuinely challenging and fun with a good group of people. I've heard murmurs from the long timers and from what I've read on this forum that there was a lot of nerfing going on, but there still seems to be a steady stream of updates so I haven't given up all hope.
Craft the World: Nothing terrible against the game itself, just that after 26 hours of game time I really have no drive to play it anymore. Might have a go at it to see if the release has brought any life back into it.

I don't completely regret it
Prison Architect: Early access done right. Well polished game with devs that really seem to actually care about their product and their community. Unfortunately after playing it for a while I realised that I wasn't into sim games like this as much I'd have hoped and haven't put too much time into it. But that's not the game's fault.
Besiege: Reasonable entry price and another good example of how to do early access. Well polished and good fun. It's worth well over the $7.99 they're currently charging even in its current state.

After fucking around with early access for a while I don't believe it's all doom and gloom, here's some things to keep in mind with early access.

• If a game is buggy from alpha, it will likely never get fixed. The games that seem to make it through to release are the ones that are polished from the start. E.g. Besiege was built around a solid engine, then the devs worked from there adding content and further mechanics. Watch a couple of Youtube videos first and if they start talking about game breaking bugs that they're hoping to fix in future releases...FUCKING RUN
• Open world/zombie/survival...just don't do it...ever
• You're not buying a finished game, so don't pay for one. They're still charging $40US for Wreckfest. Would never give them that money knowing what I know now.

What experiences have you guys had?

[Katalliaan]

For me:

Wasted money
Spintires: This one I regret. The mud physics are amazing, but there's so little gameplay. To add on to that: due to drama between the publisher and the developer, development on the game has frozen, so it'll never be complete.

No longer hopeful
Minecraft: The game's stagnated. The vanilla game is stale, and it's basically just a modding platform these days. While there's still some amazing things being done in mods, even those have kind of reached the limits of what you can do with the game due to performance issues.
Kerbal Space Program: This one was fun. However, it suffers the same problems as Minecraft, as well as the fact that it was rushed to "1.0" (which still felt like one of their "alpha" builds), likely to seal the deal with the studio that's doing their console port. If it wasn't for the fact that the game was leaking memory like crazy for me, I'd probably still be playing it. However, its poor memory management ("keep all the assets loaded at all times!") combined with the fact that it's limited to 32-bit on Windows tells me that it's not worth my time any more.

Still hopeful
Next Car Game: I got a bit of fun out of it, but I only paid $15 for it. Might turn out better in the future, if they update it
Parkitect: The mechanics are pretty solid, but we'll see if they can pull off the gameplay aspects of it.
Space Engineers: Great game, but it performs weirdly in multiplayer. The big boss (who'd been busy with a different project for a while) recently took a look at the games and pointed out a bunch of things he wants fixed/changed, and the recent updates have been reflecting that.
Star Citizen: For the longest time it seemed like nothing was happening, but lately they've been dropping some significant updates, and committed to getting the singleplayer campaign out this year.

No regrets
Prison Architect: Absolutely worth it. Introversion did a great job with PA, and I got a ton of enjoyment out of it.
Factorio: This game is amazing. It's based around automated crafting (and the defense of said automation), and the process of doing so is very satisfying. From what I've been reading in their weekly posts, they're working hard on cleaning up a bunch of loose ends for their Steam release.

There are a few others I've bought into but haven't recently played (Rimworld, Rogue System, The Escapists, and Medieval Engineers), so I can't really comment on them. However, Rimworld was pretty good when I bought it, so I can't imagine it's gone downhill from there.

[MaxAstro]

I'll chime in and say that while Ark definitely has some problems, that hasn't stopped me from dumping 150 hours into it so far. I'd say at least give it a chance and try to ignore the people who are hating on it. It has bugs that will probably never be fixed, sure, but there is still fun to be had there.

Also, there is something about seeing the whole island spread out below you from the back of a pteranodon that doesn't get old.

That said, I don't recommend the single player experience unless you throw on some mods to make it a little less obnoxiously time consuming (unless that is your thing, anyway). I also REALLY don't recommend online servers, unless you like playing BTW on anarchy but less fair. :/ I think it's best played with two or three friends on a private dedicated server.

As far as other early access games... got burned on Dungeon Defenders 2, I feel, and Starbound was fun but not as fun as I wanted it to be. GalCiv 3 has so far turned out great, though, and I got into that early access.

[Taleric]

Holy crap Kata you have insane standards! I have more hours into MC and mods then any game I have played and would not touch star citizen with a ten foot pole. I will get my list together in a bit.

[Daisjun]

Minecraft: The game's stagnated. The vanilla game is stale, and it's basically just a modding platform these days. While there's still some amazing things being done in mods, even those have kind of reached the limits of what you can do with the game due to performance issues.

I've haven't touched vanilla since I played BTW so I'm with you there, but I feel I've gotten way more than my money's worth out of it so I'm pretty content with buying MC.

Factorio: This game is amazing. It's based around automated crafting (and the defense of said automation), and the process of doing so is very satisfying. From what I've been reading in their weekly posts, they're working hard on cleaning up a bunch of loose ends for their Steam release.

Forgot to add this as it wasn't on my steam list. Played it through with a mate who bought it for me a while ago and I was really impressed. I'll probably get back into it once it's on Steam.

[devak]

My list:

Ok-ish:
Minecraft. If it weren't for BTW, i never would've sunk so many hours into it, as my love for it was rapidly dying before BTW became standalone. I got it dirt cheap (i believe 8 euros, pre-1.0 discount so it's still the cheapest game-per-hour i've ever played) which helps a lot.

7 Days to Die. This game suffers a lot from "now what?" moments. I don't really find there to be that much gameplay beyond the 20th day or so (in 2-player online coop), as technology progresses pretty fast and looting mostly turns from "oh my god so useful! so much!" to "ehh i have better stuff".

Prison Architect. Fun game, but it turned out to not really be my thing. Also suffers from the "now what" where i ran a big cellblock and rather than trying to build and run new stuff, it's mostly just coasting on what you have.


No longer hopeful:
Planetary Annihilation. I don't know why, and i asked a ton of people about it, but somehow it just hates my computer. People with way worse rigs get way better performance (A dev even looked at it!), and loading a game takes up to 5-10 minutes, which plain sucks. Disabling steam overlay cuts that in half, but that's it. Stopped playing it out of frustration.
Kerbal Space Program: Not sure what happened here as i like the game itself, but the rocket launching tedium rapidly sets in (Kerbin -> orbit feels like a chore), the weird progression is annoying (Partially addressed by BTSM, but Minecraft made me wary of mod-only gaming), and is anything still happening in development land? Because the game does not feel finished yet.

Wasted money
Space Engineers The main problem is that it's pure sandbox with next to no gameplay, and got bored of it really fast. Bought it in a steam sale, so not a lot of money wasted.
Rust: Online Zombie survival? More like getting regularly sniped from afar by other players while all you have is a loincloth and a stone axe.
DayZ: Rust, but then with more tedium, instakill bugs while being even more punishing for dying. No, thanks. Bought it in a steam sale, so not a lot of money wasted.
Towns: Kinda like dwarf fortress (But simpler, and with graphics). Internal problems caused development to be ceased. Bought it in a steam sale, so not a lot of money wasted.
Patterns; Kinda like minecraft but with different shapes and structural load. Internal problems caused development to be ceased. Bought it in a steam sale, so not a lot of money wasted.

The lesson to be learned from this category: If it's advertised as "like X but different", don't bother. Also, really early access isn't worth bothering, before the project is really off the ground it can still crash and burn and the risk isn't worth it. Lesson applies to: Factorio (and damn i'm glad i didn't bother, it's been more than a year without significant update just to make it multiplayer)

[Wafflewaffle]

Darkest Dungeon, Minecraft, Prison Arquitect, Nuclear Throne and Gnomoria I'm really happy about supporting in early stages. Not only they turned into great games i played them throughout develpment. My wallet was pleased.

On the other side... Spacebase DF-9 and Godus man... what a shit show. Definetly the last time I placed fate on kickstarter.

[Gears]

In July, it'll be 7 years since I bought minecraft. The fact that I'm still paying it today, albeit in a heavily modded state, is reason enough to say it was worthwhile.

I also hold no regret about Prison Architect, Escapist, Don't Starve, Terraria, and Factorio. Delver is also on this list, but since I haven't had a chance to play it in a few months, and given they had major overhauls during that period, I can't say ATM how I feel.

Games I'm still hopeful for are Kerbal Space Program, Rust, and ARK.

I've completely lost hope in DayZ, Breaking Point, and Fortresscraft, and consider all three to be lost causes.

[FlowerChild]

Fortresscraft

That's interesting. I recently picked it up on Steam, having never even heard of it before, and had quite a bit of fun with it. Wasn't disappointed in the least, so I'm wondering why you consider it a let down. Inflated expectations from following it for an extended time or something else?

[Daisjun]

Something I just don't understand, and maybe FC or other programmers could help me out, is how do devs justify adding content to a game when there are glaringly obvious bugs that gamers have been bitching about (for potentially years) that they refuse to patch?

Is it the time involved in fixing bugs as compared to adding content? I.e. We expect updates, and adding content satisfies that need rather than going the more laborious route of patching issues?

'Hey guys! It's Christmas time and we've rolled out the Santa Hat Update for...'

SHUT THE FUCK UP. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP. FIX THE FUCKING GAME. NO-ONE FUCKING CARES. FUCK.

[FlowerChild]

Something I just don't understand, and maybe FC or other programmers could help me out, is how do devs justify adding content to a game when there are glaringly obvious bugs that gamers have been bitching about (for potentially years) that they refuse to patch?

It's actually quite simple: fixing bugs really isn't fun :)

When I was full tilt in BTW development, you may have noticed that I'd often clear a whole bunch of bugs just before pushing out a release. That's because I had an informal rule with myself that I'd try to clear the queue as much as possible before each release to prevent bugs stockpiling. When they do stack up, it can become entirely soul crushing, so it's not that I enjoyed doing that, it's that I was trying to prevent it becoming intolerable. Even with that, there were a few of the most annoying bugs that lingered to this day just because I never worked up the motivation to tackle them.

The problem is even worse when you're dealing with other people's code and thus may have to essentially reverse engineer something that may be particularly poorly coded or documented.

[Daisjun]

That's a fair point, but as someone who has paid money in advance there's an expectation that these issues should be resolved. I think most people that are really into BTW respect the fact that you essentially do this for free and in your spare time and we'd never begrudge you for leaving bugs open (which they very rarely are). But for a company whose soul purpose is to produce video games for profit, the excuse of 'it's too difficult' is in no way excusable.

The other point is something I didn't think about though in terms of turnover of programmers, even as a non-programmer I think most people in any discipline understand the issues with picking up someone else's work and taking over. I just falsely assumed it would be the same team working from start to finish on a project, which is probably never likely the case.

[FlowerChild]

But for a company whose soul purpose is to produce video games for profit, the excuse of 'it's too difficult' is in no way excusable.

Well, I don't disagree, I was simply explaining what motivates it. My own rather anal approach to bugs in my mods is largely due to a sense of professionalism from my time in the game industry. Working on new features is inevitably far more fun than resolving bugs and if you don't have some rather heavy duty discipline going it's very easy to procrastinate about them.

I sincerely doubt that it's "too difficult" very frequently. "Too boring" is more likely ;)

[Gilberreke]

It's also the issue with these perpetual alpha games. Devs are like: "it's an alpha, some bugs are expected", then go on to say that for years and in the case of Minecraft, there's very basic bugs that wouldn't take more than a day to fix that have been in there for 5+ years now. People are just used to playing these games buggy and devs never bother fixing them.

And Daisjun's got it right on the money. When a game suffers from a plethora of easy to fix bugs, it's very aggravating when they then release an update that adds a bunch of features no one asked for, such as santa hats.

[HappyDyas]

So i guess trying to focus more on early access games rather than ones that have been officially released:

Love
Darkest Dungeon: 100% worth it. I bought it on sale, so it was cheaper. I absolutely love the animation style and the narration voice. It was great. Im burnt out after 30 hours or so because my top tier dungeon crew got wiped out by a overwhelming boss. There have been recent updates but life has kept me busy.
Don't Starve: Love it. So much fun. Ive played mostly single player but it keeps me coming back for more. Theres just a lot of variety and different play styles. If you like survival and crafting, its for you.
King Aurther's Gold: Once again, another game i love. It does have a steep learning curve at first, but its killing, building, explosions and pixelated gore!
This War of Mine: Great game, great story line. Its strategy with resource management, survival, and it really pulls on those heart strings.

Not sure yet
Catacomb Kid: Just bought it yesterday. Ive played 3 hours. Its fun, but also frustrating and i dont know where the devs are taking the game. So maybe hold out for now.
Barony: Ive had a lot of fun. steep learning curve, but its a lot of fun with another person or two. I believe that its pretty cheap in terms of pricing

No-Goes
Craft the World: like stated earlier, its fun. for a little. then it comes to the point of "what now." Probably not worth it.
7 Days to Die: interesting game mechanics, was super pumped at first, but after some game play i felt like it was actually pretty lacking.
Banished: Could never get into it for me. Seemed just too slow paced, even for a city sim.