Early access "comes at great risk," says solo city builder dev: "There are expectations, and you better deliver on the expectations"

The solo indie developer behind city builder Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles has been discussing the pros and cons of releasing a game in early access, and he believes it "comes at great risk," especially for smaller developers.

Last month, Tomas Sala released an update for his city builder that was so big, he changed the game's name, despite it being just six months from its initial, full launch. At the time, he said in a statement that "it'd be a disaster" for him to run an early access campaign, which I was curious to ask him about in a recent interview.

Sala explains that going into early access means you're facing "as rigid a development as you [can] get." He says: "You know, you made some promises, and then you have to deliver on those exact promises. If you don't, people feel let down because they already paid money."

Continuing, Sala notes that "if you do [early access], it's fantastic" since it comes with advantages like "great feedback," but ultimately, it's still risky. "If you're really small and you're not, you know, thriving on your community in a proper sense, then it becomes a stranglehold." He points to indies that have been criticized for "not being able to deliver on the hype, or taking too long" as examples of this. "When you sign up for a format, there are expectations, and you better deliver on the expectations," he adds.

Sala tells 12DOVE he thinks game development works better for him without the structure that'd be enforced by early access. As it stands, he feels freer to release new updates, and take "a month of just fucking around" to "make this cool thing," and his community is supportive of that. That "authentic relationship" with the community is important, Sala says – so much so that he thinks it's "the one thing indies have that giant corporations can't deliver."

Sala reckons devs should have more room for failure because "your first game always fails" and "their 10th game might be the next AAA studio."