It has been announced by Valve that, in order to thank their valuable customers, they are launching a new feature over Steam, which is called "Steam Early Access".
With this feature, it is now possible for Steam users to play games that are under development (by purchasing them, obviously) and help developers during these early stages of their games.
The launch of this feature was announced in the following press release:
"Steam Early Access titles allow the community to get involved early and play select titles during their development. The goal of Early Access is to provide gamers with the chance to "go behind the scenes" and experience the development cycle firsthand and, more importantly, have a chance to interact with the developers by providing them feedback while the title is still being created.
To support the interaction between Early Access players and developers, Steam offers easy and automatic updating of games, letting developers iterate quickly to respond directly to bug reports and feedback from customers. And, like all Steam games, Early Access players will be able to interact with other players, making it easy to create and share screenshots, tips, and in-depth guides.
Sean Pollman, from Badland Studio added:
"A lot of games are already operating as ongoing services that grow and evolve with the involvement of customers and the community; Greenlight helped us raise awareness for Kinetic Void, and now Steam Early Access will let us continue the development of our game while gathering crucial feedback, input and support from the steam Community."
The first titles which are available in Steam Early Access are:
What do you think about this new feature? What do you think could be improved on it?
With this feature, it is now possible for Steam users to play games that are under development (by purchasing them, obviously) and help developers during these early stages of their games.
The launch of this feature was announced in the following press release:
"Steam Early Access titles allow the community to get involved early and play select titles during their development. The goal of Early Access is to provide gamers with the chance to "go behind the scenes" and experience the development cycle firsthand and, more importantly, have a chance to interact with the developers by providing them feedback while the title is still being created.
To support the interaction between Early Access players and developers, Steam offers easy and automatic updating of games, letting developers iterate quickly to respond directly to bug reports and feedback from customers. And, like all Steam games, Early Access players will be able to interact with other players, making it easy to create and share screenshots, tips, and in-depth guides.
Sean Pollman, from Badland Studio added:
"A lot of games are already operating as ongoing services that grow and evolve with the involvement of customers and the community; Greenlight helped us raise awareness for Kinetic Void, and now Steam Early Access will let us continue the development of our game while gathering crucial feedback, input and support from the steam Community."
The first titles which are available in Steam Early Access are:
- 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby)
- Arma 3
- Drunken Robot Pornography
- Gear Up
- Gnomoria
- Kenshi
- Kerbal Space Program
- Kinetic Void
- Patterns
- Prison Architect
- StarForge
- Under the Ocean
What do you think about this new feature? What do you think could be improved on it?
