Early Access is already a commonplace pattern for Steam users. According to the official explanation, the game developer releases a paid or free game demo version, players immediately get a community participation in the development of the game trial, the game will be directly converted to the official version after the official release.
In simple terms, after you've picked a good game, if there's such a reminder on the store page, it means that the game is an "unfinished" item, and the game will be officially released after an indeterminate time. Since G Fat does not have any relevant hard rules attached, players need to consider the manufacturer's update frequency when purchasing such games (generally speaking, the update plan will be published in the reminder), various sand sculptures in the comment area, and most importantly, whether you are impressed by this "semi-finished" game.
Numerous "semi-finished" games to choose from
"The Way of The Hero" is about to update the content of the third year, which also happens to be the third year of the game's release, and the joke that "I am longer than the author" is somewhat realistic in the domestic Xianxia game.
When it comes to living longer than the author, you will think of Yoshihiro Fuken
At present, many of our national tours are still in the "early access" stage. There are also some who have achieved proud results - such as "Forgotten Immortality", "Ghost Valley Eight Wilds", and the rather clichéd "Taiwu Painted Scroll". After logging in to Steam, the current update status of these games is very different:
"Seeking Eternal Life" still maintains a few days of change, called "labor model" deserved, but it is still "early experience".
"Ghost Valley Eight Wilds" even if there is nothing good to update, but also strive to fix some bugs every month to show a face, but still "early access".
Two months ago, Taiwu Painted Scrolls announced the latest development of the twenty-month-long redo, although the game has been "early access" for four years, everyone is saying that the maker's eggplant cake kung fu is much smarter than the kung fu of the game, and the official tieba will block the post of players who have waited for several years to question the progress (the reason is not clear).
The only one who seems to have retired is "The Great Xiu Immortal Simulator", which began to produce a sequel urgently after the release of the last DLC "Wudang Wonderland" in August last year.
The Developers of Mi Changsheng are an outrageous update, and he has added another version while I am writing
Thanks to the experience absorbed by The Ring World, the production of the second part went smoothly
There is no funding, no manpower, no strong technical support. The resulting "early access" made the small workshops more or less helpless at the beginning of the "backwater war". It also sounds a bit like the beginning of many legendary studio stories — in short, Early Access was recognized and tolerated by many players when it first came out. For example, "Riding and Slashing 2" received tens of thousands of reviews in one fell swoop under the premise that the official considered "extremely low degree of completion" when it first appeared on Steam. The encouragement of "I'll give you money, you do it quickly" is self-evident.
Riding Slash 2 is also a positive result
But today's game market is more and more perfect, the pace of life is getting faster and faster, in this era of countless games on the shelves every day, a variety of masterpieces also follow, players play a game for a shorter and shorter time, even if the "Eldon Ring of Law" such a circle of masterpieces can not withstand the player's surging attack, more than a month later lazy to open the big people. Is a year or two of gaming early access really a good choice today?
Take the example of the chivalrous way produced by Heluo Studio that we are talking about today. As a return to the good battle flag and martial arts cultivation gameplay works, the way of chivalry has excellent gameplay, and the arrangement in the plot also interprets the martial arts cultivation in a more novel way: under the influence of a generation of martial arts masters "Oriental Unknown" (the protagonist of the legend of chivalry), a martial arts academy covering all disciplines and factions was born, and our players, as "primary school students" who first entered the jianghu, stepped into this three-year academy, whether to become the greatest hero or the head of the world is up to the player.
At the time of the release of The Way of Chivalry, the game as an early access version only the content of the first school year, in the game players can see the dean, teacher, gentle master sister, naughty little master sister and other characters in line with the impression of the "academy", spend a leisurely school year of learning martial arts and fighting, although some events stir people's hearts, so that players are exposed to the blurred dividing line between good and evil, but overall it is a relaxed and happy learning journey.
When the hero naturally does not delay in talking about love
Then there was a long wait, during which in addition to the routine repair bugs, only a "squeezed toothpaste" development log every two or three months was left, and although a drink was sweet, he did not quench his thirst! After nearly a year of waiting, the second year's content arrived as scheduled, and like the mentality of many players at that time, when I saw the content of the second year, my anger was mostly dissipated, which was full of sincerity.
First of all, there are many adjustments to the battle mechanism, the most I like is to add more victory conditions, the battle is more interesting, such as "protect teammates without anyone killed" this victory condition, the player needs to think about more tactical play, a set of BD to fight to the end of the routine is obviously not feasible. The expansion of the plot is the top priority, if we say that in the first school year we can still go to school as a little brother (sister), all this has changed in the first task of the second school year, the villains in the village where the task occurred appeared one after another, the foreshadowing of the first school year also gradually surfaced, the truth silently carried by the brother and sister approached the player, the player's emotions were slowly mobilized, "save" and "kill" The two chivalrous ways with new hatred and old hatred ran through all the plots of the second year, and the game experience was very enjoyable.
At the end of the second school year, the protagonist and his friends come to the docks to go their separate ways as they did in the first school year, and the player understands that a new round of waiting is about to begin. The following year's excellent update, the overall progress of Heluo Studio is satisfactory, and this period of time is not so difficult. At the moment of the official announcement of the news of the third year of the update on April 1, players said that the game had a strong sense of substitution, and two years had passed inside and two years had passed outside.
Heluo Studio has been out of the mountains again after many years, and has experienced a series of lawsuits and storms in "The Legend of Heroes" and the accident of the first release of "The Legend of Heluo Group", which can be described as a major injury to Heluo Studio. This excellent update in the second school year of Chivalrous Road has undoubtedly brought back a lot of word of mouth and credibility for them, and it is no exaggeration to say that early access has helped a lot.
The debut of the Legend of Heluo group has disappointed countless players, but fortunately, the subsequent update is gradually back on track
So, what about Early Access?
For players, this issue seems to be going to last forever. But through the example of chivalry, we can see that the pre-registered game has the support of players, and Heluo Studio has also invested player support in the production of the game and fed it back to the players, handing over a satisfactory "second year" answer sheet, which is the main reason why we are still looking forward to the "third year" update. Under the premise of being able to achieve stable updates and ensure the quality of updates, like "Baldur's Gate 3", Early Access can accelerate the development process of the game, and today's Early Access is not only a small workshop of "backwater war", but has become an option for many game development groups (of course, you can't jump the ticket, say you are R star).
Some people called The Gate of Baldur 3 at that time a cake embryo that had just come out of the oven, which is indeed very appropriate from the results
Especially in recent years, the domestic original games with frequent explosions have stirred up the domestic game, and "Black Myth: Wukong" has set off a monstrous wave, which is naturally a good thing for domestic players. Even now there are still several early access games in my game library, and now more and more people support genuine attention to developers, and a large number of original games will emerge in the future, and we will see more early access versions of games.
Don't know if any of you have played those early access games that impressed you?