[This content originally appeared in our Beacon newsletter, sent out on 26th March 2018. You can sign up for future newsletters here.]

Beacon at PAX East

First of all, for those of you who are local to Boston, or are heading out there specially for the show, we’re excited to once again be in attendance at PAX East as part of the Figs & Co booth. We’ll be exhibiting Beacon alongside a host of other great indie games, including Nectar Vector, Spartan Fist and many more! You can find a full list of the games at the booth and more info on the Figs & Co website.

We’ll be at the booth for the whole show, April 5th to 8th, and we can’t wait to see you all there!

Itch.io Refinery

It’s the news that at least a portion of you have been waiting for. At long last, we’re getting ready to open up access to Beacon to the public, through the itch.io Refinery.

What does that mean? Well, in the distressingly near future, we’ll be making an early build of Beacon available to purchase through this service. This will initially be in a limited quantity, and we want to stress that this will be an earlybuild. It’s only a portion of the full game, and things will undoubtedly break, but we feel that enough of the core game is ready for us to let outsiders get their hands on it. So, if you’re eager to play Beacon and to help us make it as good as possible, keep an eye on our Twitter account and website in the coming weeks.

Why not Steam Early Access?
While we considered releasing Beacon through Steam Early Access, ultimately it didn’t provide us with enough control over how we released the game at this early stage. We wanted to make sure that the game goes out to a (relatively) small number of people who understood that they weren’t purchasing a finished product, and who might be interested in helping us shape the game as it comes to completion. Don’t worry, Beacon will still be coming to Steam in the end, and anyone who purchases the game through itch.io will also receive a Steam key once the game is released there.

How much will it cost?
The initial itch.io Refinery release will be priced at $19.99. This will get you the itch.io build and all future updates, as well as a Steam key once the game is released there.

What will be in the itch.io Refinery build?
The first 4 levels of the game will be included, with 20+ enemy types, over 50 potential mutations, and more than 125 different items (including over 50 weapons). Naturally, as we continue to develop and add to the game, the itch.io build will be updated to include new content.

Will Beacon be coming to the Xbox Insider Program?
Unfortunately, as a small team we just aren’t able to release the game on both Xbox and PC at the same time. We’re still committed to bringing Beacon to the Xbox One, but this may not be until a full release is ready.

Beacon at GDC 2018

Finally, we’re fresh back from showing Beacon at GDC, where Unity was kind enough to host us alongside a bunch of amazing games at the Unity Art Challenge booth. We had a great time showing off the game, thanks to everyone who came along to check it out! You can find out about our fellow exhibitors at the booth on the GDC website.