What makes an Early Access release successful? That question is one that Balancing Monkey Games has to consider as the studio prepares for Beyond These Stars to enter Early Access in the first few months of 2025.
Game Rant spoke to developers at Balancing Monkey (namely Lia Patsakos, Anna Barham, and Emily Latta) about Beyond These Stars, the space whale city builder follow-up to its earlier title Before We Leave. Among other things, they discussed the company’s plan for its Early Access and how they’ve set themselves up for success.
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Beyond These Stars Wants to Do Early Access Right
Beyond These Stars is a city builder on the back of a space whale, so clearly its Early Access needs to give a basic exploration of the building and planning mechanics. But Balancing Monkey was adamant that the things available to players out of the gate need to be more than just the minimum. Beyond These Stars brings a lot to the table by expanding on the previous game, Before We Leave, and adding new components to the city building title. Showing that evolution in their formula is a critical component of Balancing Monkey’s plans for their Early Access:
This expansion on our initial setting has allowed us to flesh out the lore of the world, but introduce mechanics like space exploration, trade and diplomatic relations with different races of aliens, and going on an adventure with a Space Whale, a species that served as antagonists in the previous game … We have galaxy exploration, cool aliens, a quest system, branching tech paths, strange and unusual planets to settle, many new buildings and resources to unlock, the list goes on. Even with an Early Access release, we think it’s important to launch with an engaging gameplay loop and plenty to keep you busy.
Rather than just giving players a look at the core principles of a city builder, Balancing Monkey wants its Early Access launch to be a representative look at the game as it is envisioned to be, including quests and aliens for players to encounter. Despite focusing on building a society on the back of space whale Kewa, Beyond These Stars is also a space exploration game, letting players look through the galaxy the Peeps, the player’s population, inhabits.
Early Access to Beyond These Stars’ Philosophy
The Early Access period, coming to players sometime in 2025, will provide a real window into the kind of game Beyond These Stars is, including its focus on non-violent interactions, cultural respect, and exploring space that harkens to a philosophy reminiscent of Star Trek rather than a game like Starfield. The philosophy of Beyond These Stars is integral to what the game is, and the vision of space exploration that the New Zealand company is most interested in.
Our emphasis on non-violence is fundamental to the games that we make. There’s no combat, no destruction of life that can be executed by the player. Tension and challenge are experienced through maintaining a delicate balance between the needs of the player, Kewa, and other NPCs … You must manage the more industrial needs of your Peeps’ civilization against safekeeping Kewa’s natural biome. Pollution is a very real threat not only to the Peeps and their happiness, but to Kewa’s wellbeing too.
On top of that, the company explained players won’t be able to just harvest resources from planets, but must be given access to resources willingly. This was crucial to Balancing Monkey’s vision for the game as an alternative to the kind of cosmic manifest destiny colonialism common in space exploration media.
As an example, the space whale is named Kewa, and their hopes, goals, and dreams are a central part of the game progression. While the studio was tight-lipped on what Kewa wants out of life, they did say that bonding with the space whale unlocks quests and story beats that progress the game forward, acting perhaps as a sort of milestone system for players to move through. That would make empathy and understanding functionally as critical as smart building practices, if not moreso.
Hope is at the center of it: believing in a better future, and building community in the face of great loneliness, even if it means leaving your comfort zone in a big way. Thematically, the environmental impact of civilisation-building activity is also a biggie – climate change is kind of terrifying! Basically: have compassion and plant some trees, folks.
With both its mechanical abilities and philosophical approach being present in the game from the moment players get their hands on it early next year, Balancing Monkey is aiming to really let players sink their teeth into the title from day one – a tried and true method for making the most of Early Access.
Beyond These Stars is in development.