What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “Early Access will allows us to ensure stability and performance tuning for a wider range of systems and focus on developing features that users want the most.” Approximately how long will this software be in Early Access? “We are hoping to keep the program in EA as short as possible. Currently we are looking for 3-6 months of Early-Access period to develop new features, APIs and the AI-Assistant part and make sure the Mascot Characters does not have bugs, technical problems or performance issues on Early Access users.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “The main major and eye-catching feature for which we are opting for early access is the development of AI-Assistant and integration of a variety of utility APIs and Cloud Services. By the time we leave Early-Access, we are hoping the AI-Assistant would be production and real-world ready. Other than that, there will be a large number of 3D/2D Mascot Characters available to choose from to have them live on your desktop.

Last but not least, we hope to have a full fledged Workshop Integration to allow automated integration of user submitted models, services, APIs and content to the project.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “Desktop Mascot Engine currently has multiple fully working Mascot Characters and only lacks the AI-Assistant part of the project. You can chose a Mascot Character to have it live on your desktop and fiddle/interact with it for it to respond back to your interactions.” Will this software be priced differently during and after Early Access? “The Project will gradually rise in price as new major features are added to it during and after Early Access. We are planning to have certain inAppPurchases and crowdfunding/Patreon goals to support its MachineLearning development costs.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “We wish to collect feedback and suggestions to create more features and contents, and are hoping the community itself will speed up the development of the project as a Community Contributed Project.

We will also be creating APIs and Guides to allows users to write AI/Assistant code and services themselves and submit them for integration to main project.”