How Nightingale will change during early access, including UI fixes, combat updates and new biomes

rockpapershotgun.com:

Inflexion's fantasy survival sim Nightingale releases into Steam early access today. Our pre-launch impressions? Well, the procedurally generated landscapes are engrossing, a blend of British fairytale influences with many a hushed forest, spidery swamp and tempting ruin. We're also pretty keen as a team on the game's Realm cards system, which lets you shape those fairytale worlds both before and after you portal into them. But we were less enthralled by HUD and user interface elements such as the crafting menus and hotbar, which we found ornate and circuitous to the point of confusing.

Speaking to me after our co-op hands-on - in which guides writer Kiera made friends with a tree monster only for somebody to shoot it - Flynn explained a bit about how the game will evolve during its early access period, which Inflexion estimate will last 9-12 months. Thankfully, it sounds like fine-tuning the UI is a priority, though Flynn is "cautious" about committing to a full-blown roadmap.

"When it comes to the UI and the mechanics, I think those are the things that we're really keen to keep improving, keep working on, keep making deeper," he said. "Those are often, you know, exercises in calendar time. You know, the best games out there now have had years and years and even decades of developers just refining and improving those things, right?

"And good for them. That's the bar for the entire industry, because why would you play something funky and awkward, if you could go and play something that's silky smooth and bug free. And it's other things that attract you, like maybe it's the world, maybe it's the storytelling, maybe it's seamless co-op, whatever it might be. But we'll keep working on those things and keep improving. And for sure, the UI one was a fascinating exercise."

Flynn then brought up RockPaperShotgun's aforesaid piece on Nightingale's UI layouts and hotkey assignments. He took our criticisms in his stride, though I did get the slight impression he