I loved both Don't Starve and Invisible, Inc., so when I heard that Klei had a new game, I bought it immediately, even though it is still in alpha. Oxygen Not Included is a fun game to play already, even though it is unfinished. I've heard it described as a cross between RimWorld and Terraria, and it reminds me a little bit of Dwarf Fortress.

Here is the old E3 teaser:

Already put almost 30 hours into the game. While that's sort of already worth its value the game is very much unfinished and in need of a lot of development before I would call it a good game. There's a fun concept at the bottom of it, but I fear that as many other early access games it's gonna settle with that and never go the distance it needs. It just seems so easy for developers to release these conceptual builds and then go "well, people are already having fun with this, so I guess we just need to refine what we have and it's all good".

There's a ton of potential in what they have, and they can take it in many different directions, so I just pray they actually go the distance this time around. Although considering their history I'm not overly optimistic.

What do you mean by "their history"? I thought Klei did an excellent job of developing Don't Starve, one of the few survival games to make it out of Early Access.

@aethelred: Don't Starve is like the prime example of what I'm talking about though. It went into early access and launched as pretty much the exact same game. They've done great work since then, but that should've happened before the game got released. While there's nothing wrong with releasing these "small" games I'm just tired of seeing good concepts being released as early access (with the promise of the game being "far from finished") and then the game basically never really develops beyond that basic concept.

It's a thing that's plagued almost every early access game I've played after launch. They are fun at first when you're exploring the game mechanics (since they've put so much work into refining the core concept), but then as you go along there's nothing interesting happening beyond that. They just lack that "ok, you've learned how the game works, now let's get crazy" moment.

I enjoyed watching someone else play for a little while. I was bored shortly as it seems similar to Don't Starve- a tech tree with a nice art style.

dont starve may be one of my favorite games in the 2010s. all those who oppose me will feel my wrath. seriously when I learned about the meta game of going through portals i fucking couldnt believe it. literally my mind was in awe.

@drflapjack: Once you get into it the game does some really interesting stuff with physics and chemistry. But, as I already said, it's fairly underdeveloped at this point.

@aethelred: @ares42: Hold up a sec, you two are talking about Don't Starve and completely ignoring the other great game of Klei's that went through early access. Do you all need to listen to Austin Walker's GOTY argument for Invisible Inc. again?

I was hoping this was going to be more in the style of Mark of the Ninja rather than their sandbox styled titles.

Thanks for pointing me to this, looks interesting.

I usually like Klei's art a lot more than that.

I love Klei. I have absolutely no interest in this game type; it's possible to do it well but it feels like no indie dev will ever stray that far from the norm of tedium. The Invisible Inc. Platinum Trophy is one of the rarest in existence and it was free on PS+, go try that instead.

Oh this looks like it will scratch the itch Fallout Shelter didn't scratch.

@rigas: I'm one of the poor saps that bought Double Fine's Spacebase DF-9, a project that fizzled and died without making a proper game, and this definitely scratches the itch that that failure didn't scratch.

Wasn't Klei talking about some first-person platformer as well? Something based on "the floor is lava," I think...Are they big enough for simultaneous projects and/or am I accidentally making all this up?

@ares42: Invisible Inc was really well polished in the final release build. I trust them to do Early Access right.

Eh, I'm not sure about a standard 2d platformer side view for this type of game, maybe because I'm too used to Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld, but I feel that Don't starve's isometric-ish view would serve this better.

@aethelred: Yeah I waited a little and was about to buy in when the news it wasn't being supported broke. Still makes me sad, It had a lot going for it.

Anyone have any recent thoughts on this? Looking at this on the steam sale and it's cartoon-y art style is pulling me in.

I think it has solid core systems that will keep you busy for hours, but it doesn't have much of an end game yet. It seems to be very similar to how Don't Starve was in early access. Overall if you like system heavy management games this should make you happy.

@sawtooth:

If you like these types of games, it's pretty fantastic. Regular, and significant updates. Plenty of content right as of now, but it does get bogged down in the end game. I would definitely recommend it. But if you are the type of person to play a game and be done with it, wait for the 1.0 release. Personally I got it when it came out and have enjoyed starting a new game once a month and checking out the updates.