On 6 December 2018, game developer Chris Hunt’s magnum opus was finally complete. Hunt had been working on Kenshi, in which players navigate a tribe of people through a strange, low-tech alien world, for more than 10 years. You might think finishing it would be a huge milestone in Hunt’s career. But if anything, the opposite is true.

“No one was really bothered by the official release, because nothing will change,” says Hunt, who speaks in a laid-back, laconic fashion that makes him seem affable and yet strangely distant. “People kept saying, ‘Ah, don’t release it too soon.’ I think they were worried that I was going to leave it buggy or incomplete.”

This bizarre situation has emerged because, despite being a decade in the making, Kenshi has been playable for half that time, and already has thousands of fans. Kenshi belongs to a sub-group of “Early Access” games on the biggest online PC games storefront, Steam. Through the platform, developers can release their games in an unfinished state, and use the revenue raised from purchases to fund the remainder of development. It can be likened to crowdfunding, although rather than investing on a promise, purchasers of the games can play along as development progresses.

Kenshi was one of 12 games selected to launch the initiative in March 2013. Of those, nine have been finished, two have ceased development, and one is stuck in limbo. Alongside Kenshi, the released games are Kerbal Space Program, ARMA 3, Prison Architect, Drunken Robot Pornography, Gnomoria , Gear Up, Starforge and Kinetic Void.

Steam Early Access facilitates projects that would be otherwise impossible to produce. But it raises questions about the relationship between developers and customers, and the responsibilities of Steam’s owner, Valve Corporation, to monitor what’s going on.

A screenshot from Kenshi. Photograph: PR Company Handout

Although Kenshi was one of the first Early Access games, its story begins much earlier. So long ago, in fact, that Hunt cannot remember exactly when he began working on it. “I’ve been designing games since I was a kid,” he says. “I’d play a bunch, get inspired and start designing on paper. [Kenshi] came from a lifetime of playing games.”

Kenshi is a role-playing-game, although it interprets that idea more literally than most. Players don’t become some fantasy hero destined for glory, the familiar Dungeons and Dragons triptych of warrior, mage or rogue. Instead, they can be anything they like within Kenshi’s vast and strange world: a trader, a farmer, a bandit, a thief. It’s a game about forging your own path in a world indifferent to your success or failure. Opportunities are many, but risks are also high, and a character’s story can come to a swift end courtesy of vicious wildlife or roaming groups of bandits.

Hunt had put five years into Kenshi before Steam launched its Early Access section, much of that time as a full-time solo developer. He had even started selling prototype copies, using services such as Desura and his own website. When Valve began searching for games to feature, Kenshi was ahead of the pack. “Kenshi looks really good on a store-page, because it’s just a huge list of dreamlike features,” says Hunt. “It had a fanbase, and it was pretty far along in development.”

Steam has been vital in supporting Kenshi’s development, being responsible for 95% of all its sales. At the same time, the sheer exposure of being on Steam is also responsible for 95% of Hunt’s stress and worry. “You have to really be ready to release in Early Access, because people will come down on you like a hammer,” he says. “You get a wave of people judging you instantly. Every single bug is a panic.”

When customers are paying for an unfinished product, expectations are high. Hunt believes one of the reasons Kenshi has maintained its development for so long is through constant communication and regular updates. “If we did an update every four months, then everyone would get angry and during that gap would be saying, ‘The game’s abandoned!’” he says. “But if we did the same amount of work, but broke it up into an update every day, people felt it was really well maintained.’”

But supporting an unfinished game’s development with its sales over several years is not easy. “There was one point in development where I handed everyone their notices,” Hunt says. “We were completely running out of money.” Hunt planned to continue working on the game alone, reducing its overall scope. Then sales suddenly picked up, and it was back to business as usual.

Failure to survive … a screenshot of the game Under the Ocean. Photograph: Steamcommunity.com

Not every project has been so fortunate. Another game from the initial batch was Under the Ocean, a subaquatic survival game developed by New Zealand-based artist Paul Hart and programmer Mike Reitzenstein. Boasting a unique art style and a setting that distinguished it from other survival games at the time, Under the Ocean was one of Steam’s most interesting prospects.

But the project ran into trouble about a year into development. “With previous games, Mike and I had a very focused vision, with little outside influence,” says Hart. “But with Early Access we modified our vision to fit feedback.” One of these modifications was to make each update to the game themed around a specific idea or feature, in the hopes of attracting an influx of new buyers. But the pair found the process disruptive, and in early 2015, Reitzenstein decided to leave the project. This left Hart without a programmer, and thereby without any realistic chance of finishing the game. Not long after, he made the decision to delist Under the Ocean from Steam.

“A big part of why I hesitated cancelling the project earlier is the disappointment of letting the player-base down,” Hart says. This is the risk developers take with Early Access. An unfinished project is always disappointing for its creator. But when thousands of other people play a role in funding that project, the disappointment is magnified many times over, and with it comes a burden of neglected responsibility.

Hart continued working on the game for the next three years, at weekends, but finally decided to cancel the project a couple of months ago. Throughout, Hart has tried to maintain goodwill with the game’s remaining fanbase, offering free copies of his other games to owners of Under the Ocean – and, more unusually, promising free copies of games he plans to make in the future.

Under the Ocean may have failed, but Hart has done all he can to make the best of an unfortunate situation. The same cannot be said of every Early Access title. Patterns, a game by Second Life developer Linden Labs, unceremoniously ceased development in 2014, sparking much ire. But this is nothing compared to the confounding case of the bizarrely named 1…2…3…KICK IT! (Drop That Beat like an Ugly Baby).

Screenshots from the game 1…2…3…KICK IT! (Drop That Beat like an Ugly Baby)

Kick It is a Guitar Hero-style music game developed by Boston-based outfit Dejobaan Games. It launched on Early Access in March 2013 alongside Kenshi, Under the Ocean and Patterns. Nearly six years later, the game remains available to purchase for £6.99 – but no progress has been made on its development.

Dejobaan was contacted several times for comment, asking about the game’s current state and whether there were any plans for further release. There was no response. The last official update occurred in August 2014. Dejobaan’s founder, Ichiro Lambe, apologised for the delays in production, stating that the game’s code had “not been in a playable state”, and assuring owners that he was going to “keep on working on the game” until he was happy with it.

Dejobaan has officially remained silent since that announcement, but one of its developers released new footage of the game in January 2017. Nonetheless, most of Kick It’s customer base is doubtful the game will ever be finished, convinced that it has been abandoned.

Games like Kick It also raise questions about the potential for Early Access games to take advantage of their customer base. Should a developer be allowed to continue selling an unfinished game that hasn’t been updated in over five years? Hunt is disparaging. “I think it’s damaging to everyone in the long term,” he says. “At the very least, if a game hasn’t been updated enough, they could put a stamp on it that says ‘Possibly abandoned’”.

Valve, for its part, places the onus of responsibility with the customer. The Steam page for every Early Access game features a boilerplate disclaimer that states: “This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further.” Meanwhile, on its About page for Early Access, Valve implores users not to buy a game unless they are happy to play it in its existing state.

Gameplay from Kenshi.

Such sweeping statements are indicative of Valve’s apparent approach to managing Steam. Valve employs a “desks-on-wheels” culture that encourages staff to work on whatever project they like. Rather than appoint staff of its own to watch over the storefront, Valve encourages users to leave reviews and create “curator” lists to highlight their favourites. Earlier this year, after multiple attempts at creating various automated gatekeeping systems, Valve’s Erik Johnson announced the decision to allow any developer to list games on the store with the vague exception of “things that we decide are illegal, or straight-up trolling”.

At a time when big-tech companies are being increasingly scrutinised for their social responsibilities, Valve’s hands-off approach to managing Steam is not a good look. It’s hard to know precisely what percentage of Early Access projects have been successful, how many have failed, and how many linger on like Kick It. But even if only a small percentage of the fruit in a greengrocers is rotten, it shouldn’t be the customer’s responsibility to avoid it. It should be off the shelves.

With Kenshi, there’s no question that Early Access has been of great benefit to the game. If Kick It! remains in limbo, Kenshi will be the last of the original 12 games to see a proper launch. For Hunt, it’s a curiously melancholy moment. “To me it means I can start a new game, finally. I’ll still continue fixing stuff, the important stuff, but it’s the point where I can find time for another project,” he says.

“It’s kind of like the end.”