In its first month in Early Access, Menace, developed by Overhype Studios and published by Hooded Horse, sold over 230,000 copies. They are calling this "a resounding success" and have now presented the Early Access roadmap.
Just under a month after the Early Access release of Menace, Hamburg-based Overhype Studios and its publisher, Hooded Horse, unveiled their roadmap for upcoming upgrades and announced that the game had already sold over 230,000 copies. User ratings are high too, with 90.3 percent of over 8,800 user reviews being positive.
Firstly, Overhype plans for the game to be available on Early Access for around one year, provided that everything runs smoothly. Overhype: "Please keep in mind that this roadmap reflects our current direction for Early Access development, and features, content, systems, and timing may change as development continues."
During Early Access, new squad leader options are planned, including additional Republic Marine starting options and new squad leaders from the Wayback factions. There will also be two main story expansions, focusing on the growing threat of the Menace. The Hamburg-based company is remaining tight-lipped about two new systems and features, except to say that they intend to introduce a large and a small boss unit. Additionally, character interaction will be expanded, and the OCI screen, along with the associated mechanics, will be overhauled (OCI: Operational Capability Improvements; direct upgrades of the TCRN Impetus). New planets with environments and sub-biomes are also planned, while existing environments will be revamped. Planet-linked story factions and OCI will also be introduced. General improvements (AI and UI), bug fixes, and new items, enemies and missions will be added regularly during Early Access.
"First of all, we explicitly decided against showing a predetermined order for adding the features. We will go with the flow and repeatedly evaluate which feature makes the most sense to be added next. The problem with rigid roadmaps is that they impose strict boundaries on our development process, and that is not how we want to work. Secondly, this feature list is not complete by any means. There will be constant adjustments and improvements to most game components, even if they are not part of this list. Even though we have taken a lot of care and consideration while putting this list together, game development is not a straight path, so changes can happen at any time in the future."
