Frontiers, the exploration-based, Daggerfall-inspired RPG, will be released onto Early Access next month. Over a year after its successful Kickstarter, the game is currently undergoing closed beta testing; ahead of its public, albeit unfinished, release.

Why go the Early Access route? Creator Lars Simkins is brutally honest about his reasons: "The game is overly ambitious, over budget and over schedule and Early Access my last hope for getting it finished," he explains in an email. "A bit embarrassing, especially since I've criticized Early Access in the past, but hey it beats quitting."

See also: this update video, in which the pressures of game development are expressed through words and beard length.

Frontiers' Early Access release is set for 31 December. Here's the Steam page. Here's an interview I did with Simkins, back before the game's Kickstarter launched.