Why Early Access?

“Currently, the game is in a minimum viable product state. This means that we are still fully developing the features and systems that drive our game and want to get feedback from players to further enhance the game based on the community. This is why we want to have an Early Access phase on Steam.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The current state of the project does not allow us to determine for how long Stellar Survivor will remain in Early Access.
Since Stellar Survivor is an academic project, the game is bound to school deliverables deadlines. Once these deadlines have been met, the project will continue development and more updates will follow improving the Early Access version and working towards a full release.”

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

“Currently, the Early Access does not contain all the desired features we wish to have in the game. After the Early Access, we plan to have the following features in the game

• All aliens have more animations
  
• Missions will be available
  
• Co-op will be available
  
• All aliens have unique models
  
• All aliens have textures and (particle) effects
  
• Improved particle effects
  
• Aliens will have new SFX
  
• The playable map might change
  
• The weapons have unique SFX and UX
  
• There will be more options available in the settings menu
  
• The overall game will be more balanced
  
• Game will be improved performance

”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current Early Access state has UI that will be updated as well as the world will have different lighting and textures. The map layout might change and more vegetation, foliage and animation will be added. The alien spaceship and the spawning sequence of the enemies is an early version that will be updated.
More details:

Tutorial

• The player will learn how to move the character around the world
  
• The player is taught how to gather resources and spend these into building traps and upgrading them
  
• The player is introduced with the Powercore they have to defend and taught how to get health from the Powercore
  
• The player is taught how to switch weapons
  
• The player can skip intermission time by pressing Enter

Missions

• Only Extraction Mode is available and other missions have been disabled

Co-op

• Co-op is being developed but not yet enabled in the Early Access until proven working properly

Enemies

• Not all alien models are in the current build, some enemies will not despawn correctly
  
• Enemies currently only have a hit and death sound
  
• Enemies currently only have a running animation

Known issues

• Spriting does not function as intended
  
• Ground textures quality is inconsistent
  
• When pressing Escape in the game over screen, the mouse cursor will disappear
  
• Sometimes in the tutorial level, the player is instructed to collect six resources. However, in order to continue the player needs to collect at least eight
  
• It is possible that in the Tutorial level there are insufficient resources if the player immediately gather all of the available resources
  
• The player can affect the wisp trail system (arrows showing the walking path of the enemies) in all levels
  
• In all levels, the alien spaceship disappears with some light effects still remaining
  
• Players can immediately press Enter from the start of the Tutorial level
  
• Framerate may significantly drop at certain moments
  
• Opening the settings screen from the main menu does not work
  
• One texture in the main menu scene is missing
  
• Upon launching the game, it might crash

”

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

“After the Early Access, the game will remain free (no microtransactions).”

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

“During the Early Access period of two weeks, the developers will communicate with the player base in order to properly enhance the systems and features that drive the game. We will also use the data to balance the game more.”