No Rest for the Wicked director defends early access release – ‘It’s a way to allow developers to really perfect a product over time’
No rest for the wicked creative director has defended the idea of launching a game in early access after criticism of the game’s current state.
Moon Studios, the studio behind it Ori and the Blind Forestjust released its latest action RPG No rest for the wicked in early access on Steam, and despite the positive reception, there is some negativity surrounding the game’s performance and current build.
Of course, the game is in early access, meaning the version fans are currently playing isn’t the final product. Moon Studios already has one blog post explaining that it will make improvements during the early access period and “optimize and improve the game with your feedback.”
CEO of Moon Studios and No rest for the wicked creative director Thomas Mahler also started working on this X (formerly Twitter) to explain its stance on early access, saying it’s “one of the best decisions we could have made” (via PC gamer).
“I see some people are still annoyed about why games like (No rest for the) Bad, Hades 2Larian’s new game (Baldur’s Gate 3), etc. launch in Early Access, even if the studio “should have the money to finish the game and then release it,” Mahler said. “But that is looking at a complex problem through a lens that is far too simple.”
“I think as games become more complex and sophisticated, we’ll see some form of early access happening more and more. Speaking from our own experience, it’s simply impossible that we ever Bad 1.0 without being able to see all the data we see now and get all the feedback from users. And I mean actual users, not a Focus Testing Group. Even if we had two to three times as many staff it would simply have been impossible, the product is just far too complex to reasonably expect that. Nine women can’t have a baby in a month and all that.”
Mahler goes on to say that he thinks some games in the past would have benefited from an early access period, such as FromSoftware’s Dark soulsexplaining that if the studio “hadn’t rushed to ship the game in a slightly unfinished state, they probably could have looked at the second half of that game and still fully sculpted and polished the less polished areas like Lost Izalith , etc.”
Baldur’s Gate 3for example, was in early access for three years – making various updates and changes – before finally launching on PC and PS5 in August 2023, becoming the first game to win every major Game of the Year award.
“Shipping games is always incredibly difficult and stressful and usually means making some pretty drastic compromises, especially if your product is trying to achieve something new,” the director continues. “And if you don’t know that it’s okay to add certain features and capabilities after the fact, you’ll end up cutting corners before you get to market.
“So even if you don’t like the idea of Early Access, it’s a way to allow developers to really perfect a product over time, so please try to understand that there is value in that. I’m confident we’ll see games made through Early Access programs that would never have been made without EA.”
No rest for the wicked is also planned for a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.