Hi,
You want me to give you the money for a full priced retail game. 40€. For a Beta. No problem. If i'm interested in a game im more than willing to pay this price.
What i don't get is why you don't want to let me TEST the game completly but give me a very limited demo version of the game. How should someone test a game without the ability to play it to 100%?
There are two answers:
1. you give a fuck about the term beta, which means feature complete and ready for testing. This means in my eyes: you are lying about needing the help of the people to test your game. You probably just need some money. But this is still no reason for giving us a beta demo instead of the beta of a fully testable and playable game. So this is - with high probability - no early access or beta. Its just a demo for cheap marketing.
2. There are things you are concerned about in the later parts of the game. Things you are unsure about how the people are going to like them. So you keep them away from public eyes by showing the world only the most polished part of the game. But i don't think this is the case, since the game looks really good.
Thats why my conclusion is: This is no early access and no real beta. Its just a marketing demo and therefore a abuse of both systems that exist on steam in this combination to help indie developers to bring out their games. They just don't have the money for a huge quality assurement department and need the players to help them out. Its a real SHAME that you abuse this systems for PR and a demo version.
Since this conclusion is not really satisfying it brought me to the decision that your release strategies make you and your game look not trustworthy enough to buy this game at this stage. I even rethink if i'm going to buy the game at all. More and more companies are abusing early access. Since money is the only language of this company that's my only way to protest against this.
