No one was really bothered by the official release, because nothing will change,” says Hunt, who speaks in a laid-back, laconic fashion that makes him seem affable and yet strangely distant. “People kept saying, ‘Ah, don’t release it too soon.’ I think they were worried that I was going to leave it buggy or incomplete.”
This bizarre situation has emerged because, despite being a decade in the making, Kenshi has been playable for half that time, and already has thousands of fans. Kenshi belongs to a sub-group of “Early Access” games on the biggest online PC games storefront, Steam. Through the platform, developers can release their games in an unfinished state, and use the revenue raised from purchases to fund the remainder of development. It can be likened to crowdfunding, although rather than investing on a promise, purchasers of the games can play along as development progresses.
Kenshi was one of 12 games selected to launch the initiative in March 2013. Of those, nine have been finished, two have ceased development, and one is stuck in limbo. Alongside Kenshi, the released games are Kerbal Space Program, ARMA 3, Prison Architect, Drunken Robot Pornography, Gnomoria , Gear Up, Starforge and Kinetic Void.
Steam Early Access facilitates projects that would be otherwise impossible to produce. But it raises questions about the relationship between developers and customers, and the responsibilities of Steam’s owner, Valve Corporation, to monitor what’s going on.
