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Post news Report RSS Early access now supported

With the majority of new releases now following the "continuous development" mantra, we now support the "Early Access" release status.

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We've noticed that the vast majority of games (and mods) on our site are listed as "unreleased" despite being available via "early access" or as an alpha. This is problematic because apart from being misleading, it means you cannot search for these games to play or review them.

Whether you like early access or not (we are undecided as it seems to be a perpetual thing with many games hiding under the guise of early access), it is clearly here to stay.

Whilst our release system needs a major overhaul, the first small step is to start supporting the "Early Access" category, which we have done immediately. We encourage all developers to:

  • Update their game or mods profile to "Early Access" if suitable
  • This will automatically categorise reviews as "Early Access" or not
  • It will allow your game to be searchable in the releases section

Let us know what you think of this change. Also worth noting our Github features / bugfixes board is public for all to contribute to.

Post comment Comments
White_Hand
White_Hand

its*

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Klon116
Klon116

Cool! Will forward that to my team to discuss this new category for Stargate EaW. :)

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Admiral_Nemo
Admiral_Nemo

I think whether one agrees with the Early Access model or not, this would probably be a good feature to have. +1 from me.

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Dragonlord
Dragonlord

I don't like early access at all since most games turn into "forever interim solutions" without ever getting finished. But what is it about demos? If somebody releases a demo how would this be handled by the system now? Or is there supposed to be a new mode for demo releases?

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ChrisBryant
ChrisBryant

This is an interesting point. I'd very much like a "Demo Available" flag.

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INtense! AuthorOnline
INtense!

Thats the problem, for every studio who is legitimately giving early access to their game and providing an active dev blog, there are another two who used it as a label to release their game early, earn a little money then abandon it. Despite that it is here to stay and I think as a mechanism of identifying you game/mod as released but not yet complete is important, especially the labelling of early access reviews

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MoreZombies
MoreZombies

I think things like Steam Refunds have come a long way to helping remedy the problem. I'm actually about to make an attempt at refunding a game I've owned for a long time, since it's been stuck in Early Access with no updates or discussion from the developer. It'll be interesting to see if I get approved.

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Opinionator
Opinionator

Yeah EA is a two edged sword and it has cut me both sides badly. I don't like demo's they kind make me not purchase.

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OrangeNero
OrangeNero

A right step imo :)

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Sph!nx
Sph!nx

I have mixed feelings about EA games, but they are a thing so good that it's now recognised on IndieDB. Thanks.

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OrangeNero
OrangeNero

What is it with everyone not understanding that early access is nothing more but a pre release beta status. This has existed since the beginning of time its just a new term. This is nothing new its just an accurate description for what has already existed.

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Potato999
Potato999

Cool

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INtense! AuthorOnline
INtense!

Oh and you made have noticed that you can now embed tweets in news posts and in comments. To do it just put your tweet URL on a new line in a post. Considering extending this support for our videos, youtube and images. What do people think?

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egozi44
egozi44

Question, where I can contact Moddb stuff? they never reply my mails
I have serious Site's issue

I suddenly can't reply to people AT ALL

no matter if I log in or anonymous

No matter what browser I uses (and yea I deleted the cookies and etc), No matter the IP

WTH caused it? : 0

Did I get banned for no reason?

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