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Exapunks is 'Early Access' I'm waiting for the full release to play.

That's certainly important to note. Though in this case the game is done already and basically "release" quality. I think they did the same thing for TIS-100 as well; Early Access for a bit even though the game is done and 99% bug-free.

They've been releasing games this way for a while. Early Access with most of the pieces in place, with some polish on graphics, balance, and music for a few months before it's all finalized. Shenzhen I/O and Opus Magnum were done that way for sure.

That’s one option, but another more fun option might be to get the game now and be active on the reddit or at least lurk there. This adds another layer of enjoyment as you get to participate in coming up with optimization tricks.

And that said, from experience with previous games in they have released what will happen is that they’ll only do the following things: reorder a small number of levels for balance, add a small number of quality of life features and then after release they tend to add another set of puzzles, where the first set would have already justified the asking price. It’s early access in name only imo.

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