Windborne - Social Sandbox Creation Game

[Xanthippe]

I came across this on Steam (early access), although haven't purchased it. Looks intriguing, though.

http://www.hiddenpath.com/games/windborne/

The Steam reviews make it look very promising.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/221560

I don't usually buy early access games, especially not for $30, but people seem to be very happy with the game as it currently is, as well as the developers. There are few complaints.

[Malakili]

This looks kind of like what I was hoping Cube World would turn out to be.

[Kail]

I've had it for a while, it's pretty solid, but a lot of features are incomplete.

Like, you can build stuff just fine, but there's no character customization, no equipment, no combat of any kind, etc.  The Jin, the little elfy guys, aren't really implemented yet (they're there, but whatever they're supposed to do in terms of the game as a whole, they don't do it).

As someone who never played Minecraft, I'm having fun, but I don't know how much new there is for vets of the genre.  It does seem like it would be good for kids, or people who don't like dealing with monsters, but otherwise people might want to wait.  The dev does seem pretty responsive (there's an in game widget where you can vote for what features you want next, and they seem to listen to the feedback) but you're still banking on promises at this point.

Edited to add:  Regarding that discussion thread about the state of early access games in general, I'd say that currently this is the game I'd point to as an example of "how to do it right."  The developer is active in the community and responding to feedback.  The store page lists what features are done and what features are still coming.  Not that this is a 100% reliable and trustworthy company that will deliver on all their promises, but it's a lot more transparent and open than most other early access games.

[Kail]

Edited to add:  Regarding that discussion thread about the state of early access games in general, I'd say that currently this is the game I'd point to as an example of "how to do it right."

WELP.

While we have found a great audience and a lot of people who love Windborne even in its early state, we didn't raise enough sales to continually fund the team at the size it was. After going for over a year with the large team, we couldn't afford to keep that up on our own and so we shrunk the team down to levels we could afford.
...
With the team a fraction of the size that it was before, it may be up to 12 months or more between updates rather than the every 3 months it was before

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rvl91/i_am_jeff_pobst_ceo_of_hidden_path_entertainment/

[Falconeer]

That's honest and awful. 

Early Access sucks because of that: you might be buying into a project that is already dead but they are not gonna tell you in order to cash in the last few pennies. In this case I can't help but appreciate ther sincerity, although I hope that will be clearly visible on the Steam page.

[Paelos]

It's why Early Access is the best thing ever. Because it's a big flashing warning sign not to fuck with something that's not done if you're not willing to risk it.

[Fabricated]

Doublefine rule.

[Falconeer]

There's more than one Early Access or Kickstarter (or both) projects that turned out more than fine. But yes, chances are slim. You bet on something you have lots of chances to lose money on, while you could have probably not placed the bet in the first and collected the win anyway if it ever paid out anything. Granted, if no one places those stupid bets, some of those fine projects wouldn't have existed.