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?

We want your input on the gameplay loop. Do you enjoy the battles? The level-up system? The world maps? Are there parts of the game you find tedious? What can we do to improve? We don't know exactly what you're going to tell us, but we would like to make the changes that will make Himeko Sutori a better game.



As of December 2018, the game is playable from start to finish, but there is no plot beyond chapter 1. Our further development will flesh out the world with more lore, more characters, and all the cutscenes we need in order to tell the epic story that gives context to the epic-sized worlds and conflicts already in the game.



We have literally hundreds of sprite sheets for all of the characters in the game and all the equipment they can use. But we are not finished adding equipment yet. As development continues we will add more weapons, shields, armor, and helmets to the game. We will also add more enemy types. As we add that content to the game, we will also add more unique sprite sheets.



We currently have mostly licensed music in the game. It fills the space well enough, but it's not what we had hoped for. If funding allows, we will add an original score, custom-made for the people, places, and events in the game. But if Early Access sales do not provide enough funding for an original score, we will finish the game with the music we already have.

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?

“The major reason why we would like to release Himeko Sutori as an Early Access title is to open the game to wider player feedback. We have a few dedicated players who have given us some excellent feedback, and now it's time for us to open the door a little wider. With your feedback, we should be able to make Himeko Sutori a better game before we release version 1.0 to everyone.In addition, if Early Access proceeds allow us to increase our budget before the v.1.0 release, we would like to use the additional money to add some polish to the game, specifically by commissioning some original music for the game. Our current financial situation will allow our core development team to finish the game without relying on Early Access sales. But if we can increase our budget a little, it will help us to deliver a more polished game by the time we are ready for full release.”“======================: Turns out we needed more time than the six months we originally expected. Our players found a lot of bugs and they had a lot of great recommendations. So we ended up doing a lot more work on the game, making it a better game, but without really progressing toward completion. Now that we've fixed the worst bugs and added the biggest recommended changes, we're finally focusing on finishing the game and we're making quick progress. We hope to finish the main quest over about the next month, and after that we'll go back and more content and detail. Very soon, the game should be playable from start to finish. And very soon after that, we hope to make it the detailed and polished game we plan to deliver.======================About six months.Making a video game turned out to be more complicated than any of us had expected. Nathaniel, our lead developer, started working on Himeko Sutori part-time over four years ago, then started full-time work on the game two years ago. In that time, we have learned a lot about how much effort a game really takes.With this new perspective, we expect that we should be able to guide the game to completion with your help in about six months. And if funding allows the addition of more music, we would like to give our composer plenty of time to finish the score while we finish building the game and implementing your input.”“======================: The game is getting very close to completion now. What you play now is going to be very like the finished game. All the major areas are done and we are currently scripting out the events and dialogs in the later areas to move the plot along. The game is mostly feature-complete right now, and we don't plan on adding any new features until the main campaign is finished. The biggest task between here and completion is the main quest, which we hope to complete over the next month or so. After that, we'll go back through the game and add more late-game content, including NPCs and shops in the later towns, plus more high-level enemies, gear, and crafting recipes.======================This is what we have planned, going from what we have right now, to what we want to have before releasing version 1.0:“======================: The game is in great shape! With the help of our Early Access players, we've found and fixed most of the bugs and we've made a lot of improvements. There is plenty to do in the game right now, traversing through the world, leveling-up your characters, and upgrading through at least five tiers of equipment. We've built all the major zones in the world, and we've added quests and content through at least half of the game, offering about 20-30 hours of content, depending on how thoroughly you like to minmax your characters. Some of our more dedicated players have enjoyed the game for 60 hours or more (take a look at the reviews to get an idea of their play time) as an open-ended adventure. And we've placed enemies to challenge you all the way into the endgame.======================As of December 2018, the game is fully playable and mostly stable. (We would say fully stable, but we did have a tester report a crash from a previously undiscovered infinite loop bug as recently as early November.) We have a fully developed first chapter and we have roughed out the game world all the way to the end. Our testers report about 6 hours of unique content before they reach the point in the game where the towns are empty. In the immediate future we will populate the mid- and late-game towns with people, and populate the mid- and late-game world maps with enemy armies and other encounters.Please see our Community Hub for the latest state of the game. We have been posting monthly updates there and we will continue posting updates as development continues.”“======================: We increased the price by a small amount last September, and we expect to keep Himeko Sutori at this price for the foreseeable future.======================The current price is lower than what we expect the final price to be. We realize that Himeko Sutori is not yet finished and we appreciate your help in completing development on the game. The current price reflects that.”“Please take a look at our Community Hub to see how we are already involving the community.We appreciate the bug reports and the feedback that the community is giving us right now. When you join us in the Himeko Sutori Early Access release, we hope you will join our community and give us similar feedback and bug reports. We have so far responded to every question and fixed every bug reported to us. We make an effort to respond to everyone within 24 hours. If our community grows faster than we can keep up (we don't have a full-time community manager) then that time frame may have to slip a bit, but we are going to remain dedicated to considering all of your input and fixing every bug as fast as possible.”