What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “Hey hey, I'm Eli and I'm the game/project/programming lead for Observatory.



When we bring an art contractor onto the project, I pay them mostly with money I made from previous games (so far there are four art folks: Cindy Raggo for The Island, Alex Myers for Phantasmagoria, Thomas Guillon for Hamster Slide, and we got some freebie concept art from Michael Kingery for Antibody). I've been working on games for a long time, and this is easily the most expensive project I've ever worked on - honestly, it's the most expensive single thing that I've ever paid for.



So I need to make enough money to pay for the rest of the art that the game requires. We considered doing a crowdfunding campaign, but we're more comfortable selling a game that's already in a functional state. Because of this, we decided to hold off until we had a solid amount of content, then start doing preorder-beta-access to fund the rest of development. I think this is our clearest path to a large amount of quality artwork.



Now...I've heard lots of complaints about Early Access.



We're trying to be as fair as possible by only selling content that's properly polished and cohesive. For example, our racing game wasn't substantial enough for sale until it had working high scores and automatic replay sharing for its randomly generated tracks.



That being said, two out of the four items in the pack are still basically prototypes, so they're not available by default, but we're also including an opt-in beta for people who are curious and want to see them anyway. These are games that function at a basic level but don't offer much to do.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “About a year, if all goes to plan.



...But then, it's game dev, so I don't actually know. Sorry.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “We aim to maintain a high level of polish at every stage of Early Access, all the way through to release. We'll be including an extra opt-in beta with content that's not ready for primetime, but this is only for the extra curious (or impatient).



Here's what's still missing from the different items:



Phantasmagoria



This one is already finished.

__________



Hamster Slide



This is already a functional racing game with a unique play style, and racing against other people's replays is fun, but it needs a metagame (like a feature-unlocking system) before it'll be complete. We'd also like to gradually add more variation to the track generator - one aspect of this is getting more art assets, but the track generator could also use some other added features, like huge jumps over gaps and tracks that split and rejoin.

__________



Antibody



This one's still a prototype, so it's currently only available if you opt in. The prototype is a single randomized level which shows the game's core gameplay loop (scouting, reinforcements, dogfight). The final game will be a series of levels with a growing set of weapons and enemies and a bit of a storyline involving your character and the sentient ship they fly. There's also still a long way to go in terms of making it as tense and scary as it's supposed to be.

__________



The Island



This game is also still an opt-in prototype. It shows an island setting with one physics-enabled giant crab wandering around (he's nearby to the right when you first spawn). There are no puzzles to solve yet and various bits and bobs are just plain broken (like the water, which looks watery but doesn't do anything, meaning you can walk around on the ocean floor, where there are no decorative objects). The final game will have a sequence of puzzles to solve by interacting with various animals (like a swarm of bugs and a rhino-monster).

__________” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “There are four items, and they are all in different states.



Phantasmagoria (music video): Complete



Hamster Slide (procedural racer): Beta



Antibody (spacejet horror): Prototype



The Island (animal puzzler): Prototype” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “We're starting Early Access at a discounted price. It will gradually approach the release price as we get closer to a complete feature set.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “We love talking to people who are playing our games, and we take player feedback extra seriously. We won't put in every feature that people ask for, but we'll consider everyone's complaints about what's missing or what's included.”