Why no Early Access

The question has popped up a few times now and I understand that the slow development process might feel frustrating.

However there are several reasons why an Early Access is not planned for ASG at the moment. To begin with EA is a lot of pressure, management effort and legal responsibilities. All of this is part of game development of course, but in this project’s particular circumstances, engaging into that path too early would essentially divert limited resources from actual coding. Secondly the overall objective is to build a space game, not a pure simulator and so a public release in the current state would certainly be confusing.

The same pragmatic approach goes with the testing team: the best size is large enough to significantly improve the program’s quality (bug hunting, UX streamlining etc…), but also small enough that it is actually more of a community of online friends that basically manages itself.

And so in order to hopefully help do with these constraints I’m trying to provide regular updates so everyone can monitor the project’s advancement, in this blog and through the newsletter.

Thanks again for your interest in the game and your understanding!

This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. Tobias C

    Crowdfunding/kickstart might be a good middle road *wink wink* nudge, nudge.
    Or simply releasing a tech demo. But I understand your reluctance and you are most likely making the correct decision…..BUT I WANT SHINY TOYS NOW XD

    Keep up the geat work and keep those vids comin’ 🙂

    1. David

      Will do! Thanks for your understanding 🙂

    1. David

      Ah yes sure, thanks! I would suggest http://toughsf.blogspot.com/ for specific topics too. Generally speaking the doc for the game comes from reference books (mostly about orbital mechanics and spacecraft systems), my previous experience in electronics engineering, and from online material of course (Wikipedia 😍). I tried to add the corresponding links in the website’s sections.

    1. David

      Ah I know about KSP and some mods for sure: even wrote an ascent optimization / aerobraking planning add-on for it actually! 😀 (It’s now unavailable as it was made obsolete when they changed the aerodynamics in the game).
      On the other hand ASG is about managing and piloting an existing ship in a more standard space game setting, that is with operational missions as part of a career as a Space Guard captain. So regarding the power plant the focus is about operations, optimization and maintenance rather than “design” actually.

  2. Jake

    When do you think / estimate the game will be released? I know the release date can easily change and it’s difficult to figure out when the game will be done. But I’m mostly curious of how long to wait and how much the game been developed so far.

    1. David

      Difficult to answer indeed! Here’s the current dev roadmap:
      – NPC traffic (current Q2 + Q3/2021?)
      – Ship systems 2nd pass (monitoring and alarms, life support, maintenance… Q4/2021?)
      – Missions and Career framework (Q1/2022?)
      That is from that point (Q2/2022?) the fundamentals of the gameplay loop will be in place and all subsequent additions to the ship’s capabilities will enable new types of missions. And so the release should occur when there is sufficient diversity (and to be built upon later on!).
      I hope this gives a time-frame, to be refined in the coming dev reports 🙂

  3. Dragon

    Bonjour David, je suis tombé sur ton site grâce au discord d’orbiter, qui suit ton travail de près pour certains membres. Sera-t-il possible d’avoir une démo dans un proche avenir?
    Le twitch de Jay’s m’a fait baver d’envie.
    Je rejoins l’avis de Kabouik (fofo conquête spatiale) sur son analyse de ton travail.
    Bien à toi,

    Dragon.

    1. David

      Salut Dragon, je vais aller te répondre sur le forum de la Conquête Spatiale ! 🙂

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