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    (AfroGamers.com) The idea of releasing an unfinished game to the public used to be the height of indignity for developers and would have been ripped apart in the gaming press for being borderline scammy. But things have changed a lot, with early access releases on Steam setting a new precedent that has its upsides, as well as its drawbacks.

    It’s now quite common for new games, especially in the indie sphere, to arrive on the market long before they’ve actually had the final touches put on them, or even been built out to include all of the levels and features that are eventually planned. What’s more, early access games still come at a cost to the player, and so developers are even incentivized to take this route and get an often much-needed early injection of capital.

    Further fuelling this trend is the fact that some early-access games become hits, racking up tens of thousands of concurrent players and building marketing buzz, along with the revenue that comes with it. But just because a huge audience is already enjoying a game, that shouldn’t also cause the developer to take their foot off the gas and leave it unfinished.

    Player Counts Cannot Make an Unfinished Game Feel Complete.

    Open-ended isn’t Satisfying

    A good game has a good gameplay loop, and sometimes it’s possible to achieve this even if the experience doesn’t have a firm conclusion in place when it’s launched, whether as an early access release or something that is claimed, on paper, to be complete. More often than not, games with open-ended design that effectively rely on the same gameplay loop being repeated endlessly with no end will become a grind, and while player counts might climb sky-high initially, if there’s not some satisfying outcome for those that commit for the long term, people will drop off in droves.

    Open-ended design is fine if players get rewarded, of course. Level progression and upgrades that change the experience meaningfully, beyond the basic aesthetic unlockables that are still widespread, do make a positive difference. It’s the kind of thing that works for Tikal Casino, for example, where the simple gameplay loop and the consistent rewards are central to the experience.

    Scope Does Not Equal Depth

    Another issue with games that are fundamentally unfinished is that even if they are vast in their scale, with huge maps and equally huge player counts, that doesn’t matter if the underlying experience is missing a few key pieces. So whether that depth is achieved through meaningful progression systems, as mentioned, or the introduction of a narrative to provide context and structure for the action, it must be present.

    Social Interaction Can’t Be the Only Selling Point

    One of the biggest catalysts of any game’s rise in popularity today is the ability to play with friends and strangers, and we’ve seen titles take off in short timeframes because they enable and encourage social interaction. This, in turn, often leads to fun and inventiveness that stems from player involvement, creating a sense of enjoyment in the short term.

    The drawback is that if competitive or cooperative multiplayer forms the basis of the game but there’s not much more to it than that, you’ll also see player counts tumble once people have their fun and then burn out.

    So, unfinished games cannot hope to be hot properties indefinitely if they don’t become more polished and feature-rich over time. We’ve seen the likes of No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 go from being criticized on release to eventually being considered masterpieces, but it’s only through regular updates and iterative improvements that this transition was possible.

    Staff Writer; Carl Carter

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