Why Early Access?

“Friendship Club was in a fun, playable, competitive shape from very early on and we're excited about being able to share it with people. Importantly we want your feedback and help. Over the past few months we've refactored a lot of the game to allow for fine-tuned control of the rules, meaning you can create your own game modes, which drastically changes the nature of the game. Friendship Club is a game about getting your buddies 'round and having a good time, we feel that inventing house-rules is a fun part of that and we want to see what you come up with! There's lots of elements of the game design that are still on the table and with active engagement from y'all we feel like we've got a better chance of nailing it.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“The honest answer: we don't know. We have a roadmap and a reasonable idea of the overall features we want to include, but we're aware that things will change as the community starts to grow. We'll need to do additional support, marketing, shows and all of that. Also, if someone comes up with something awesome we'll probably want to add it! We're realistic about how long it takes to make games and are intent on making everything as well as we can. Doing what we do to the best of our ability is our philosophy, we're not about raking in the cash and moving onto the next 'big thing' (if we were about that we'd be doing a very bad job of it)!”

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

“There will be more of just about everything. Game modes, arenas and possibly characters. New arenas will include specific level elements that affect gameplay. Some will encourage more chaos (as if that's necessary) and others will emphasise slower, more strategic play. We're keen to take the core mechanics of Friendship Club as far as possible, whilst lathering it with humour and fun. There will also be a dynamic soundtrack that follows the action. There will be a single player mode, though we are very much focussed on local multiplayer at the moment. One of the major additions will be the ability to save, name and share your own custom game modes made out of the advanced modifier options.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“It's pretty good, though there is a long way to go. There are four characters, two arenas (each with their own procedural generation algorithms), team matches, and under the hood the advanced modifiers working away. Most importantly the game in its current iteration is FUN, which is why we're happy to get people playing it. We tag things that are still under development with a little WIP icon, so you'll see things as they go through various states on their way to completion.”

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

“Yes. We don't believe in selling promises so we're pricing the game based on its current state. So as we add more features the game will get more expensive. However, all future updates of Friendship Club are free once you've bought it. Get on board early, help us with your feedback, see the game grow and put up with the odd bug and you'll be rewarded by getting it at a cheap price. Better than that, you can say you were playing it before it was cool. We don't believe in selling promises.”

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

“We will be asking for feedback on game elements as they are added to the game. If something doesn't feel right or is less fun than it used to be, we want to know about it. We play the game a LOT, but we also spend an awful lot of time making it so we can get snow-blind sometimes. That said, whilst we'll take every suggestion on board, we do have a reasonably clear vision on what we want the game to achieve in terms of how it plays and where it's headed. An important aspect of user feedback will be the ability for players to create their own game modes, allowing for all sorts of wacky combinations. Some of these may even make it into the game as default game modes in their own right.”