Why Early Access?

We decided to go into Early Access again with EVERSPACE 2 since working closely with our most-dedicated fans helped us tremendously when making its predecessor. Early Access enables us to stay truly independent, not compromise on our creative vision, and release the game only when we and our community think it is ready.

Now, as we make the leap from building a linear roguelike space shooter as a small indie team to creating a full-blown open-world space looter shooter as an ambitious AA PC game with EVERSPACE 2, we need your help more than ever.

Open-world games with modern RPG elements, a variety of complex gameplay mechanics deeply interwoven with one another, are arguably one of the most challenging genres in video games development. Combined with fast-paced 3D combat and exploration second-to-second gameplay in open space, on planet surfaces as well as underground, and supporting 1st person, 3rd person, and cockpit view, as well as meaningful endgame content, adds even more dimensions of complexity not found in your average shooter.

While we’ve been working hard for over two and a half years to have all core gameplay mechanics and a good chunk of quality content in place for a solid Early Access release, there is still a ton of work ahead of us, and we look forward to getting your feedback and iterating the game based on that.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

We look forward to working closely with you over the course of the next 12 to 18 months to make an outstanding narrative-driven open-world space looter shooter.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

Throughout Early Access, we will iterate on core gameplay mechanics, UI/UX, as well as world design and overall game performance on a monthly basis as needed.

New features and content will be gradually added through quarterly updates:

• More star systems, locations, enemies, activities etc. (8 star systems planned for v1.0)
• More player ship subclasses and tiers (9 subclasses with 4 tiers each planned for v1.0)
• More ship customization options
• More player levels (max player level 30 planned for v1.0)
• More items and resources incl. Legendary gear
• More player perks (6 x 3 perk upgrade options planned for v1.0)
• More companion characters incl. perks to upgrade (6 companions planned for v1.0)
• More challenges
• More main and side mission story content (30+ hours of story content planned for v1.0)
• More situational commentary from Adam and Hive
• More interesting jobs and factions
• More alien creatures
• Natural phenomena like lightning fields, black holes, solar storms, etc.
• Fast Travel system
• Different Outlaw factions with different tech
• Better trading opportunities, price tracking, trade routes
• Quest inventory
• Codex
• Game difficulty setting
• Worthwhile endgame content and activities
• Achievements
• UI and text language support for German (as well as professional voice dubbing), French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Simplified, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
• Mac and Linux support

We'll be sharing more about these and other features in development on our social channels and community updates.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

EVERSPACE 2 launches in Early Access in English with full voice acting for the first 12+ hours of the story campaign and several side missions that take place in the first two star systems of the final game. The initial version is good for at least 25 hours of gameplay, while introducing pilots to EVERSPACE 2’s core gameplay mechanics of space combat, exploration, mining, puzzle-solving, traveling, trading, itemization, crafting, ship customization, player and companion perks as well as five different player ship subclasses.

The game supports fully customizable controls for mouse + keyboard, gamepad, as well as HOTAS/HOSAS incl. presets for popular Logitech and Thrustmaster joysticks hardware setups.

After multiple rounds of community testing by some 2,000 players, and great feedback from various gaming outlets and content creators on the closed Beta, EVERSPACE 2 is ready for Early Access, and we can’t wait to receive your much-appreciated feedback on the initial release version. If anything does not feel right, is missing, or you’ve got a great idea, make sure to let us know on the Steam forum. Rest assured, we read every single comment.

We’ve already put a great amount of effort into performance optimization, but there is still potential for improvement, and it would be great to get your feedback on how your overall gameplay experience is (please share your specs and game settings if you do so).

Of course, there are various design issues and some minor bugs already on our list as the game is far from finished. That said, we believe that there is lots of stuff for you to enjoy even at this early stage. If you are still on the fence, make sure to check out the ROCKFISH Games channel on YouTube or Twitch where we stream the latest dev build every Friday from 8 pm to 10 pm CET / 2 pm to 4 pm ET / 11 am to 1 pm PT to see for yourself where production is currently at.

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

During Early Access, we plan to run only a few moderate discounts as we very much respect and appreciate the financial commitment of our backers when we only had a prototype to show to get pilots excited about our vision back in 2019.

At full release, we plan to raise the price reasonably to what feels right for a polished product offering dozens of hours of excellent space combat and exploration gameplay, driven by a compelling story campaign and various side missions. Plus it will be the possibile to sink hundreds of hours into planned endgame content that will challenge even the most die-hard space pilots out there.

Thankfully, we don’t have any investors or publishers breathing down our neck, so we can guarantee you that we won’t have any micro transactions, obtrusive product placement, or other immersion breaking advertisements ruining your experience further down the line. However, eagle-eyed players may spot a few subtle placements where we give a nod to a handful of excellent content creators and hardware manufacturers who help us promote the game. Last but not least, EVERSPACE 2 will be DRM-free, requiring no internet connection after downloading the latest version.

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

We’ve been working closely with our community since the very beginning when we announced the first EVERSPACE installment, in 2015. The best place to provide feedback would be the Steam forum or on our website everspace.game. If you are up for more personal interactions with the team and EVERSPACE fans, join our Discord channel discord.gg/rockfishgames. Of course, we are also active on all our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram.