In plain sight

As we close out the decade, and the generation, in which early access became one of the industry’s most popular funding and development models, we must admit to still having mixed feelings about it. Yes, it has given the game-buying public a valuable window into the pitfalls and pratfalls of making games. It has offered developers a viable route to market that escapes the controlling hand of a publisher, offsets the risk of selfpublishing, and is a way to test a game at scale while it is still being made.

Yet there have been downsides too. There have been plenty of, to put it as flatteringly as possible, unfulfilled promises. And involving the customer in the creative process has fed into a broader problem with consumer entitlement. No doubt the model is here to stay, though – and judging by two of this month’s Hype crop, that’s no bad thing at all.

First up is Hades (p30), which we’re checking in on after 12 months in early access. Supergiant Games didn’t need to do this: with Bastion, Pyre and Transistor under its belt, it had the resources and the reputation to go it alone. But it was drawn to the idea of making its next game in public, and the results are striking. The studio has always seemed at ease in its own skin, comfortably switching genres with each new project. Yet it estimates that some 40 per cent of the changes it makes in Hades’ fortnightly updates are driven by early-access player feedback.

Obsidian will no doubt be hoping for the same level of success with its cheery new survival game Grounded (p42) which, while different in genre to Hades, shares many similarities with it. It, too, is the work of an established developer heading into uncharted genre waters; like Hades’ spin on the Roguelike, it is a gametype that has proved to benefit from being developed in public. We may have mixed feelings about early access, but if this is the calibre of game we can expect from it in the 2020s, they won’t last much longer.