What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “We're entering Early Access for multiple reasons. Firstly, It would be best for the game if we can start receiving and implementing feedback from the community as early as possible. Miner’s Mettle is an innovative game with fresh game play and we have a specific vision for the game, but players' advice can often be invaluable, especially as there aren't any games quite like this one. We'd also like to be able to reward players who offer particularly useful feedback.



This ties into our second goal, of creating a community. We have a Discord channel where we can create and build a constructive and supportive community for all players of the game. A place where one can not only find advice to improve their play, but also give advice to improve the game itself. Where players can talk directly to us, hear about upcoming changes and our plans, as well as make friends to play with or against!



Thirdly, we're a new developer with a new idea in Early Access, and we know this makes some leery of placing their trust (and money!) with us. We want to reward that trust with regular updates that will increase your enjoyment of the game.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “We are planning to stay in Early Access for approximately 9 months to 1 year. Balancing and polishing the current content, adding new content, and working on the single player campaign are our main goals in Early Access. This should give us ample time to achieve our current goals.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “The final release will contain a lot more content, most notably the single player campaign, where you follow the story line of an ex-artillery man as he navigates the treacherous world of Pentum. Other content includes new maps, modes, and abilities. A track editor, a weather system, and a train depot are other components we are considering.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “Most of our core game play has been implemented, though further polish and balancing is required. If you are looking for a game that you can sink dozens of hours into right away, we are not there yet. Please wishlist us and check back in again in a few months! Early Access currently contains Horde Mode (both single player, and 2 and 3 player co-op), and an online Versus mode (1v1 to 3v3).” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “As we ship new content and features, we will increase the price, either during Early Access when we reach a certain threshold of quality, or during our 1.0 launch, or both.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “We encourage our community to give feedback on the game and its feature, and they will be able to do this on a variety of different platforms, including Steam’s community forum and our Discord server, or even our feedback submitter in-game. It is important to know how the community feels about the different game play elements, where improvements can be found, and incorporate novel new ideas they may suggest.”