What you should know before choosing open development

gamesindustry.biz:

Chris Moore

Tuesday 14th June 2022

Opening up your game to the public is always a scary thing. We all know first impressions matter, and that we only get one shot at them.

And of course, it's even harder to make a game perfect -- even most AAA titles these days launch with a Day One patch! So why then, have so many companies pivoted to an Early Access model?

Early Access is a relatively new approach to development, with the first 12 Early Access titles launching less than a decade ago in March 2013. From there, Early Access games took off. You're probably familiar with Valheim, Splitgate, or Baldur's Gate 3. These are all titles in varying stages of development but are playable now by the public, warts and all.

With this approach paying off for so many developers and publishers, we now have a series of 'cousins' to Early Access. You've probably heard terms like beta, demo, playtest, and open development. At their core, each of these approaches is the same: it means getting your game into the public's hands before it's done, polished, or finished.

While this approach benefits the game, it can also become a hindrance to the team, trapping them in a state of "it's almost done!" forever

So why do it? How do you streamline and optimize your team for the process? How do you talk to your players? We'll take a look at all of this and more in the following graphs, but the first thing I want you to think about is the importance of having a vision for the finish line.

Early Access allows developers to tweak and polish their work for as long as they want before reaching version 1.0. While this approach benefits the game, it can also become a hindrance to the team, trapping them in a state of "it's almost done!" forever. That's why you