game dev twitter! I& #39;m at a bit of a crossroad

should I release Flowstorm on early access, even though it& #39;s very lacking in content?

(thread for more info/concerns I have)
I& #39;ve been developing Flowstorm while streaming for a long time now. many people ask for the game, to alpha test or generally try it out!

I& #39;ve been giving steam keys to those who donate or support me on patreon at a specific tier, but, it& #39;s a bit of a clunky system!
on top of that - it& #39;s kinda messy to just, I don& #39;t know, point someone to the game?

because it& #39;s on steam, yet not publicly, so there& #39;s no like, public landing page with info and screenshots etc, and I think steam would be a really good place for that!
so all of those are the good things!

as for my concerns - I worry that the game will be sort of soft-released when early access hits, and that it might have its one and only marketing push *and* active playerbase at that moment, rather than that happening at the real 1.0 release
but at the same time - maybe I& #39;m being too pessimistic? is this really how communities develop over time?

I also think/hope this is mostly an issue if you manage to capture a huge % of your potential audience, but not so much if it& #39;s out mostly under the radar. right?
I don& #39;t know. I& #39;d love to hear from devs experienced with early access! other opinions are welcome too but it& #39;d be neat with some data, and not just opinions~

does anyone have any experience with this type of setup, or otherwise have thoughts on what is/isn& #39;t a good idea?
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