Why Early Access?

“Our studio’s first self-published title, Knockout City, was developed with the community. There was constant communication with players, and while we did have a small team, we tried to take feedback into account every step of the way.

Midnight Murder Club is being developed with an even smaller team, and while the core game is already fully playable and represents a lot of the fun we expect players to have in the final version, there are many directions that we can go as we work toward a full release, and a feedback loop with players on the game’s current status and roadmap is the best way to deliver a great game when we’re ready for a full release.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect to be in Early Access until later this year, but we don’t have a planned end date for the full launch of Midnight Murder Club yet.”

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

“We're planning to add additional content and features to the full release version of Midnight Murder Club. We're already working on some of this content, and future development will be influenced by the player community. We would like to add additional game modes, mansion toys, new Wildcards, and we’re looking into what a PvE mode might look like as well.

Our plan is to release frequent updates ranging from small bug fix patches to larger updates with new content and features. Our latest roadmap can be found on our Discord, and will be updated regularly in line with development updates and community feedback.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Midnight Murder Club is a fully playable game with one map (Wormwood Manor), six playable club members, five game modes (Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, Headhunters, Thief in the Night, and Wildcards), and nine mansion toys (Bear Trap, Bulletproof Vest, Light Grenade, Machine Gun, Mannequin, Molotov Cocktail, Night Vision Pills, Player Pinger, and Speed Boost). It has full immersive audio with proximity chat, room codes for cross-platform play, bot support in Free-for-All and Team Deathmatch, and Guest Pass support.”

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

“We are not planning to change the price during or after Early Access.”

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

“We’ll be continually improving the game with community involvement. Our main community lives on the official Velan Studios Discord (linked from the main menu), where we have easy locations to share feedback about the game, future content, and game stability. In addition to Discord, we’ll take community feedback from our social channels, Steam discussion boards, Velan-hosted Twitch streams, and other places we see people talking about Midnight Murder Club. We’ll include patch notes with our regular updates and mark which items were directly influenced by the community.”