I’ve decided it’s time to remove Tile Miner from early access. Here are the reasons why:
I’m nowhere near the final release. When I released Tile Miner back in 2014 I had fully expected to release the game within a year to a year and a half. Development always takes longer than I think it will. At this point my estimation for a final release is 2-4 years from now. That blows my mind. When I entered early access I expected 1.5 years and now 2.5 years later I expect ANOTHER 2-4 years. With the actual release being so far out I can’t possibly imagine keeping a community of people who have purchased the game excited with the progress. It’s just unrealistic.
I don’t have the bandwidth for a quality early access experience. If a quality early access experience was a release once a year with a 3-4 times a year update I think I could swing that. But I believe a quality early access experience includes weekly if not daily updates with a release every 1-3 months. That’s not even close to feasible for me. I don’t want to sell people on an early access experience I can’t actually provide.
Focusing on the final release will make it come sooner. If I’m making 6 updates before launch day it’s going to take longer to get there. Every update requires extra polishing and making sure it’s ready for public consumption. Releasing one time instead of 6 will make a huge difference on how long it takes for the game to be released. I may release a closed beta before final release for bug testing purposes. But it will be the full game. Not a partial release.
There are other little reasons besides this but these are the big ones. I’m sorry to everyone who’s been a part of this process and hoping for a great early access experience. I can’t provide that. In the end I think what everyone wants is a great game. My hope is that in the end I can at least provide that. Thanks!
Followed this for years.We wait,dont worry.:)Just,never abandon it.
If your reading this message, you might want to look in the Steam Forums about your game that keeps popping up despite its removal from early access. You have a lot of people like myself who are willing to buy the game as it is, and really shouldn’t have removed it from access. Your post is good enough to point out there are no promises. Let us buy this game, even if its not complete. You have over 100+ people who are willing and wanting to buy. Don’t ignore it and have some torrent site put it up when you can still make sales off it from faithful customers who are willing to pay for what you have done so far.