Why Early Access?

“We’ve bootstrapped VEIN entirely by ourselves. We don’t have a publisher or funding outside of our own savings, and currently have day jobs, developing VEIN on the side.

Releasing into Early Access allows us to spend more time VEIN development, and Early Access success means we can hire artists and developers to make VEIN better than ever. (We'll continue work on VEIN regardless of Early Access success).

In addition, Early Access allows us to receive feedback from the community and iterate on the current and future features of VEIN, together.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan to develop VEIN under Early Access until it’s feature-complete. That means we plan to add NPCs, raiders, settlements, quests, lore, and the full 14x14 kilometer map, alongside hundreds of other features and gameplay and graphical improvements. We estimate that, with full-time work, we can achieve this within roughly 5 years.

We intend to work on VEIN indefinitely.”

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

“We’ll be expanding the map outwards to 14x14 kilometers. NPCs, raiders, trading, and settlements have yet to be developed. Base fortifications are in currently, but we’d like to expand these to a full range of high-tier defenses. We’re planning on writing lore and quests for the world of VEIN and fleshing out the story and timeline, with quests and things to do spanning a number of in-game years. Finally, we’d like to improve the art over time: better weapons, animations, characters, zombies, and textures will help bring the game world to life.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Character creation, as well as a full RPG stats and leveling system, is present. Multiplayer is functional. Combat, both player-versus-player and against zombies, is present. Looting and scavenging, farming, crafting, cooking, and base building are in. A fully simulated power grid and water system is in-game.

There’s a variety of areas and points-of-interest to explore. The playable area is around 4x4 kilometers, covering four towns and the nature around and in-between them. It is continually expanded with updates.

VEIN is known for having hundreds of independent and interlinked systems, so we encourage you to play the demo version to see what’s in game. The demo is restricted to two small towns and with a level cap. It continues to and will continue to receive updates with the Early Access version (and beyond).”

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

“We intend to increase VEIN’s pricing over time as the game is developed.”

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

“We have been open and transparent with our community since day one. We constantly take feedback from everywhere and everyone, be it from YouTube comments, our Discord server, the in-game feedback reporter, and even via e-mail. We’ll continue to do this during and after our Early Access phase.

If you’re curious about what that looks like, we encourage you to join our Discord server — we’ve been taking feedback since version 0.001.”