What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

Deeper and more complex staff and students

Research tree and/or school specialization

Subject scheduling

Sports

Truancy, delinquency, bullying, and other serious issues that schools deal with

School Prestige, and competing with others for the “Best School”

Scenarios

Random Events

Mod support

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“While prioritizing features and making design decisions in our previous game, we kept asking ourselves, “what do the players want?”Early Access allows us to answer that question right away instead of playing guessing games. We want to invite the players into the feedback loop to collaborate with us as we build the best possible school simulation game that we can.”“We expect that development in Early Access will be for at least 12 months and probably more, depending on player feedback and interest in adding features to the game.”“There are many features that are still being designed that will make the final game much more complete and full featured than the current version of the game. These include:The final list of features will ultimately depend in the feedback that we get. We cannot promise we'll be able to have all these features in the game, what's important is we get to work on the features that the community wants.”“The game is fully playable and has enough mechanics to keep you busy through a few in-game school years. Systems, like cooking, cleaning, hygiene, hunger, etc are already complete. There isn't a full fledged tutorial but a simpler to-do list system that guides the player on what to do. It helps to be familiar with games like Prison Architect and Rimworld since the controls like zoning and building are very similar. There are basic sound effects and music, and more will be added as time progresses.”“Yes, the price will be increased after launch, but will still be competitively priced with similar games.”“We will be actively watching and participating in the discussion board here, on reddit, facebook, and other social media. We will also have a polling system in the game where players can vote on which feature they're most excited for us to work on next.We can never promise that all suggested features will be implemented, but the more excited you guys are about a certain feature, the more excited we will be to make it come to life.”