From what I’ve gleaned from the history of this project, the original creator of the game sold the IP to a publisher in order to secure money and resources for further development, where they promptly started interfering with development to the point that it was delayed and ultimately cancelled.
The creator bought the rights back from them and released it into Early Access so that they can fund its development.
I personally have nothing against early access games after playing other EA games like Factorio, Rimworld, and Satisfactory that were known for being incredible experiences long before they launched into 1.0.
IronKrill@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
A little ironic to post this on a game inspired by Minecraft, the most prolific example of an early access model working out.
EarMaster@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But Minecraft - even in the Beta days - worked as a complete game. They have been improving (depending on how you like the changes) on it since, but it wasn’t ever filled with literal work in progress signs like Hytale is…
southernwolf@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Yes, but Minecraft was on sale for a year before it ever went into “Beta,” back before it was in Alpha even. In fact, it wasn’t until one of the last Alpha updates that the earliest semblance of “Minecraft” as we know it really began to appear. The Beta updates added a lot of core features we take for granted in the game, like beds for sleeping, tall grass for seeds, redstone repeaters, pistons, sprinting, hunger, etc.
Glide@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
The first purchasable version of Minecraft I remember didn’t even have a working health bar.
Notch sold the game to Microsoft long before it was ever a complete game. Why program something when you can sell players on an idea and then sell that idea to Microsoft?
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I know it’s a bit fuzzy with Minecraft since it’s constantly getting updates, but I find the claim that Minecraft was “incomplete” before selling it to Microsoft is a big stretch.
Version “1.0” came out 3 years before the Microsoft sale, and at least to me, the game felt “complete” long before 1.0
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
They still haven’t delivered on the finite water promise.