Amplitude has always used Early Access for its games, even before Steam Early Access was a thing. Before Endless Space’s release in July 2012, players who pre-ordered the game were given immediate access to an alpha version which was regularly patched and updated before launch.
To this day, the studio still uses their Games2Gether program, where they discuss design issues with players and ask them how to proceed. Right now, a small group of gamers are giving their thoughts on the recently announced Humankind 2.
However, as Amplitude prepares to launch Endless Legend 2 after a year of early accessco-founder and CEO Romain de Waubert de Genlis readily admits: “Everything has changed over time”.
“With Endless Space, we were one of the first games in Early Access on Steam, before it was called Early Access,” remembers Waubert de Genlis. He remembers the difficulty in convincing journalists to play and cover their matches: “The game is not over. Why would I come? Let me wait until they are finished and then I will write an article about it.” It was also a time before influencers were what they are today, so it was a more private relationship with dedicated actors. “It was just between Steam players and us. Undercover.” When their games launched in Early Access, that’s when they saw an “avalanche” of players.
“Today it’s a little different,” explains de Waubert de Genlis. “More players are coming to early access, more journalists, more influencers. What we don’t know is if they came to early access, will they come back?” He says journalists can preview a game in early access, but that doesn’t guarantee a review. (Edwin previewed Endless Legend 2, for example, but we’re not currently working on a review.) “Will we have that flood of players again or will it be a small batch?” he wonders.
Like other developers, they decided to delay a big update until launch day to give players a reason to check out version 1.0. The full launch of Endless Legend 2 sees three new factions added to the game, bringing its roster from five to eight, and many other changes are being made across the game. “There’s a lot of stuff,” de Waubert says of Genlis. “But we don’t know if everyone sees it that way.”
But it’s not just their approach to early access development that has changed, attitudes towards the release style have reversed. “Ten or 15 years ago, people understood very well that it was an unfinished game,” says de Waubert de Genlis, adding that if a game was too polished, players would complain: “They would say: ‘It’s not early access, you should do the game with us’.” This attitude is very different today. “Now, if you go into early access with an unfinished game, you will be crushed,” says de Waubert de Genlis. “‘I paid you 50 euros and you give me an unfinished game?’ The expectations are not at all the same. »
This change is a challenge, says de Waubert de Genlis, because it does not allow for experimentation. “Initially, I still thought we could try things, and trying things means you’re allowed to make mistakes because if you want to be creative you have to try things and sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. You learn from it and you improve and in the end you have something solid but the path can be a little rocky, or you have no risks and you have something flat. So it’s tricky.”
During Endless Legend 2’s early access, de Waubert de Genlis says the team released around 60 patches and ten major updates. However, the expectation from these patches is that the game will constantly improve. “People can be a little unforgiving if something in one of these updates isn’t perfect,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Guys, we’re trying something. We’re working on it.'”
That said, de Waubert de Genlis says the response to the initial launch of Endless Legend 2, which introduces a new system whereby receding waters reveals new territories to seize, has been “overall, great.” But, while widely loved, the game had some issues reported by players. “At the beginning, when the waters receded, we had too much land,” says de Waubert de Genlis. “People could get lost and bored. We had to create a more interesting land generation.” Now, when new land is generated, it has more choke points to create the feeling, as de Waubert de Genlis describes it, that “I have to fight for this little piece of new land that has just appeared.” These changes, he says, all come from player feedback.
Even if it was a bit brutal.
But, despite these changes and shifting expectations, Amplitude Studios is following the same model for Humankind 2. Right now, players are playing a private alpha build and giving feedback to the team. The team now has a better understanding of what players want from an early access title, Benoit Humbert, game director of Humankind 2, tells me. “We know that players expect something that at least looks finished and works well.” What comes out in Early Access “will be kind of a finished game,” he says, but they’ll “always change things based on what players tell us.”
As for de Waubert de Genlis, even modified early access is better than the old ways. “Before, when you had to print your record, a long time ago, the month preceding shipment was a bit of a waiting time,” he remembers. “We don’t hear anything from the press. We don’t hear anything from the players. For a month, it was really a wait, the stress was mounting.
“Right now in Early Access, you hear from the players. You know exactly what people want, exactly what you’re offering. The game is already played. You’re working until the last minute and suddenly you press a button and everyone comes and plays. You don’t have that waiting time. No more wasted time.”
Accommodation and travel to Gamescom were paid for by the organizers.
