Steam - Early Access Denied

Silver · October 12, 2016

@PCGamesN they talk to the developer behind Starpoint Gemini 2 and ask how the early access experience has changed for developers and players.

Starpoint Gemini 2 was one of the first games to enter Early Access after being scouted by Valve as a good candidate for the program. "I think we were the fifth or sixth game ever to get into Early Access," explains Little Green Men Games CEO Mario Mihokovic. "We weren't some great visionaries that knew how this was going to play out. Basically, we were developing the game - we'd never heard about Early Access because it didn't exist - and one day some people from Steam came to see it and said they were preparing a new program. They will be releasing unfinished games, and since we were talking to our community quite a lot, we would be a very good addition."

At that stage Steam were only accepting games in the very early stages of development, rather than the beta stage games that routinely enter the marketplace now. "The scheme insisted on the game being as unfinished as possible. It was their number one priority, they said, ‘if the game is in beta, or even close to beta, forget it'. The game needs to be as unfinished as possible so that people actually have enough time to be included in what they're investing in." For Starpoint Gemini 2 that meant basic controls for moving a ship around in space and nothing else - the collision box didn't work, most keys didn't work, firing didn't work and combat didn't work.

More information.

joxer · October 12, 2016

IMO the thole thing should be scrapped and rebranded as Steam BETA access. With accepting only beta versions in it. Two benefits:
- No vaporware
- No broken promises

Who'll fund projects towards beta stage one might ask? That's easy to answer: Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Fig.

Silver · October 12, 2016

joxer said:
IMO the thole thing should be scrapped and rebranded as Steam BETA access. With accepting only beta versions in it. Two benefits:
- No vaporware
- No broken promises

Who'll fund projects towards beta stage one might ask? That's easy to answer: Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Fig.

I think Steam did early access to get the next Minecraft on their platform. Kerbal Space Program is a good example of how it can work but audience expectations are definitely different now.

I would keep early access but also have BETA access as long as the separation between the two is maintained and managed by Valve (slim chance I know). Over time an early access game would become a BETA access game. Steam developers are just not professional enough at the moment but that may improve as early access expectations solidify going forward. Too many cowboy devs at the moment.

SSIGuy · October 12, 2016

I think a big part of the problem are users - and not devs. You buy into early access, you need to expect all kinds of bugs, incomplete mechanics, missing content, etc - and be OK with that. It amazes me the negative reviews I see from users who buy early access. Do they really not understand what early access is? It's like they're expecting to get a finished game!

Now that said though, I think there is a growing problem with devs keeping games in early access far too long (especially games that seem done or close to done) - and maybe that feeds into the perception above that an early access game can be pretty much finished and playable.

Anyway, all this amounts to for me is I ignore anything in early access. Yeah, thanks - I'll check back in a year and see if you have a finished game for me to spend my hard earned dollars on.

Van-d-all · October 12, 2016

Early Access sure needs to get it's stuff together. It's become a ghost town of vaporware. Submission should require a public development schedule with actual dates, with devs falling behind too much resulting in being kicked out. There certainly would be some sobby dev drama, but all in all Valve should put the interest of customers first. Half the titles struggle to deliver a proper patch for months, while the other half progresses at such a glacial pace they've been there for years already and neither are likely to ever be released…

ChienAboyeur · October 12, 2016

joxer said:
IMO the thole thing should be scrapped and rebranded as Steam BETA access. With accepting only beta versions in it.

It means nothing.

Previously, the alpha and beta stages were thought to shorten the developpment cycle. In that structure, the inputs from customers were excluded during the alpha stage.

Then crowdfunded devs (who trade in work hours) had the idea to monetize an access to the alpha releases.

From that point, the usual structure was destroyed: alpha and beta means nothing.

This goes as far as providing test versions for what is called now alphas.

Alpha and beta versions used to be test releases. Now, with the new developpment cycle, test versions are released for what used to be test versions.

SSIGuy said:
It amazes me the negative reviews I see from users who buy early access. Do they really not understand what early access is? It's like they're expecting to get a finished game!

Usually, reviews for SEA products are overwhelmingly positive at least until devs pulled the plug.

joxer · October 12, 2016

It means everything.
Stop living in the past, please. I'm talking about what's considered beta today. I'm not talking about what beta (or alpha if we'll widen the story) build ment on Commodore 64.

Still, I do believe it's strange you're pulling out history on me, I did mention a few times stupid nextgen word commonly used for consoles where it's either cuttentgen or already outdated hardware compared with PC, so I've expected it's clear that I mean present and not past unless specified differently. But okay. Next time I'll try to make more clear post.

Irien · October 12, 2016

It seems to me that a good approach would be to have some "traffic light" graphic on the project page to give people an idea what to expect...

red = early stages, may crash regularly and lack much content (pre or early alpha)

yellow = gamplay (largely) content complete, may crash, may still have placeholder UI, sound or other elemnts, should give fairly representative experience of final product (ie. late alpha, early beta)

green = (more or less) all systems/levels in place (content complete) but may lack final polish, stability or options that would be present in release version (ie. what I'd term a final beta test).

Of course, policing this kind of thing is always the problem.

forgottenlor · October 12, 2016

Irien said:
It seems to me that a good approach would be to have some "traffic light" graphic on the project page to give people an idea what to expect…

red = early stages, may crash regularly and lack much content (pre or early alpha)

yellow = gamplay (largely) content complete, may crash, may still have placeholder UI, sound or other elemnts, should give fairly representative experience of final product (ie. late alpha, early beta)

green = (more or less) all systems/levels in place (content complete) but may lack final polish, stability or options that would be present in release version (ie. what I'd term a final beta test).

Of course, policing this kind of thing is always the problem.

Perhaps, but I think it would help both buyers and developers to manage expectations. It obviously wouldn't help with dishonest developers, but it would help with developers who wanted to put something in say the red phase on Steam, without them getting blasted by customers who invested in the game expecting a beta.

basharran · October 12, 2016

I find that due to the enormous rise of early stage support by developers that it's very hard to decide who is worthy of your money. So in my case that means I stopped supporting anything. If more people feel this way the system might collapse again.

forgottenlor · October 12, 2016

basharran said:
I find that due to the enormous rise of early stage support by developers that it's very hard to decide who is worthy of your money. So in my case that means I stopped supporting anything. If more people feel this way the system might collapse again.

I know what you mean. But I don't find it the rise of early access alone. There are so many more rpgs on Steam, and in general there are so many more indie games being developed that I also think twice before supporting anything. My Steam wishlist is up to 35 games, and I still have a number of games I've bought, but haven't got around to playing. Its like going from famine to feast. I feel oversatiated, and so I always think a great deal now before supporting Kickstarter or early access.

ChienAboyeur · October 14, 2016

Irien said:
It seems to me that a good approach would be to have some "traffic light" graphic on the project page to give people an idea what to expect…

red = early stages, may crash regularly and lack much content (pre or early alpha)

yellow = gamplay (largely) content complete, may crash, may still have placeholder UI, sound or other elemnts, should give fairly representative experience of final product (ie. late alpha, early beta)

green = (more or less) all systems/levels in place (content complete) but may lack final polish, stability or options that would be present in release version (ie. what I'd term a final beta test).

Of course, policing this kind of thing is always the problem.

Unpracticable as it sticks to the old view on developpment cycle when devs worked to achieve the completion of a product.

SEA devs trade in work hours. The developpment process might be ended anytime. As a result, they release many versions that could be the terminal one.

In this context, devs usually stay vague on features and content. They have no public content list. A release version can anytime be turned from yellow to green on devs' whims.

Stability/bugs are also a different story. One release might be very stable but because of the introduction of a feature, the next releases turn out way more stable and buggier. That means moving from green to yellow etc

joxer said:
It means everything.
Stop living in the past, please. I'm talking about what's considered beta today. I'm not talking about what beta (or alpha if we'll widen the story) build ment on Commodore 64.

The dev cycle no longer define a beta and alpha stages. The only way to achieve that definition is to wait for the terminal released version. From that point, call betas, the last ten versions and before that, they are alphas.
It does not help.

Still, I do believe it's strange you're pulling out history on me, I did mention a few times stupid nextgen word commonly used for consoles where it's either cuttentgen or already outdated hardware compared with PC, so I've expected it's clear that I mean present and not past unless specified differently. But okay. Next time I'll try to make more clear post.

Not pulling history. alphas and betas no longer apply.

Steam - Early Access Denied

Silver

Spaceman

joxer

The Smoker

Silver

Spaceman

SSIGuy

An Islander Returned

Van-d-all

Watcher

ChienAboyeur

SasqWatch

joxer

The Smoker

Irien

Sentinel

forgottenlor

Font of Useless Knowledge

basharran

Sentinel

forgottenlor

Font of Useless Knowledge

ChienAboyeur

SasqWatch