[Eon Altar] PAX Prime and Steam Early Access, Soon™

The past couple weeks have been absolutely insane as we've been trying to get stuff "done" and aligned for this week. With our handset builds out the door to Apple and Android, and our Steam build in review, all we can do now is generally wait as we prep our showing at PAX Prime.

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We don't have an absolute date at the moment, and until we know we do have a date, we don't want to make liars out of ourselves, but ideally we'll have something up on Steam for PAX Prime. If we do, and you bring your phone with our (free) handset app already loaded on it to play with us, we'll give you an exclusive pin.

But even if you don't bring your phone loaded with the handset app, you'll be able to play a bit of our game at PAX itself, as we're on the expo hall floor! I'll be working at PAX Prime for the first time ever, and it's gonna be so much fun. And so tiring and long, no doubt. I personally won't be on the floor every day, I think we have like 8 people and we only really want 4 employees in the booth at maximum at any given time.

We are choosing to go Early Access to begin with. My personal feelings on Early Access are...complex. I can't say I'm a big fan of purchasing games in Early Access (though I've been known to do it on occasion), but that's mostly because I prefer to play complete products myself. I play enough buggy software for my job, thanks :P But, on the other hand, as a tiny studio we could use the additional gameplay/balance/fun feedback, testing, and so on that Early Access can provide us, and it does give folks the opportunity to get in and let us know what works and what doesn't. Who knows, maybe one of my blog readers will have a massive impact on the final product!

It also allows us to soft launch, so to speak. With having to coordinate Steam, Android, and iOS, our patching/engineering process is likely going to have a few bugs unto itself, let alone the game. Having to be really careful about how we roll out the handsets and the central game, as well as engineering ways to have compatibility across devices that aren't necessarily up to date is going to be a difficult process. I personally have experience doing this sort of updating thanks to my time at Microsoft Office (because compatibility is king for Enterprise software), but still, I imagine we will end up making at least one mistake. Best to get that figured out before we release for real.

Still, I cannot believe we're already putting our game out to the world. It is exciting and terrifying simultaneously. Will people like it? Will they hate it? Will we get love letters and hate mail? I really hope to see folks who are going to PAX Prime drop by our booth and give the game a shot. And to just say hi! When I figure out what days I'm on I'll pop a schedule here. But looking forward to it!

#EonAltar, #PAXPrime, #EarlyAccess