Interview: After Two Years In Early Access, Everspace 2 Is Cleared For 1.0 Launch

mmorpg.com:

Two years ago, Everspace 2 officially entered Early Access, which gave players an early look into the series’s new space exploring approach. With the game’s 1.0 launch now here, there’s plenty to discuss before we blast off into the unknown for the first time. 

At PAX East last month, we spoke with Erik Schrader, community ambassador for Rockfish Games, about how Everspace 2 has changed since it hit Early Access, the challenges in switching from a roguelike to an open map, and much more.

MMORPG.com: 1.0 has been a long time coming, I remember writing a preview for the Early Access build in 2021. How excited is the team to finally get that 1.0 build out?

Erik Schrader: It's a double-edged sword, really. We've been given so many new opportunities by going through the Early Access progress, and getting all this amazing feedback from our community. However, we don't want to hit the realm of «scope creep.» So, a lot of our vision for the game has been finalized, we've pullied it in and refined it, and it's all of its coming to fruition. Some ideas did have get put to the wayside to get to the state we are in now. We're looking forward to releasing it, but we are missing a couple of things where we think, man, if we had just a little more time, we could have done this. Overall, yeah, we're ready to push the button.

How has the game progressed since the first foray into Early Access two years ago?

This game has transformed so much over the years. If I would have seen two years ago the state the game is in now, I would have been mind-blown. We have just expanded on everything, from ship designs and classes and diversity of equipment, to how device upgrades make an actual impact, how commodities can now be traded and sold