Here is a promised post about the next planned steps after Indiegogo campaign. We have compiled it as a list of questions and answers. This is largely based on the questions we have received through the email.
I missed the Indiegogo campaign. Is there a way for me to get the alpha?
There is not at the moment, but we hate seeing people eager to play our game and not being able to. Therefore, we are working on preparing an alpha preorder directly on our website.
When will that happen?
We will probably setup BitCoin / PayPal payments within a week or two. We will see how it goes. Other payment methods might follow later.
How much will the game cost?
As long as the game is in the alpha stage, the basic membership tier will cost 10€ (approx. 13$). The price might go up once we think it is ready to be called beta.
I would like some stuff present in the higher Indiegogo tiers. Will that be possible?
Yes. We are thinking of having couple of membership tiers that would more or less correspond to the Indiegogo tiers. This way, you will, for instance, be able to buy the game together with some art (digital wallpapers) and downloadable content (scenario packs).
The Indigogo ended very short of the multiplayer stretch goal. Will you do the multiplayer anyway?
Yes we will.
When will the final version of the game be released?
Indiegogo said that the game would be finished by summer 2013. We are still aiming at having the features promised on the Indiegogo page ready by that time. However, we would like to see the development of Factorio more as an ongoing process. That means that we are planning to continue development as long as the game sells. We already got enough input from the people here at the forum for at least a year's worth of work.
I heard that your funds were blocked by the PayPal. Is that true?
Yes it was, and it scared us a lot!:) We contacted PayPal, and we were asked to upload certain verification documents. We have done that, and after a bit of back-and-forth communication they unlocked our account today. That was a big relief for us.
I have backed your campaign. When do I get the rewards?
We have already started working on this. The estimate here is that we will start distributing the rewards by the end of the March. However we consider some of the rewards to be an ongoing work. For instance, the scenario pack. We will start small and we plan to keep adding the content into the scenario pack for a while. Naturally, the backers who selected a tier including this scenario pack will be entitled to all the future updates.
How will you distribute the rewards?
We will create member accounts at our webpage based on the tier you selected. These accounts will be created based on the emails provided for your PayPal payment. All our rewards are digitally downloadable. So, you will simply be able to download them from our website.
What if I made multiple contributions?
We will sum those contributions and you will be entitled to the perk corresponding to the total value.
I have a testing account, but I have not backed the game. Will my account stay active?
We will keep the testing accounts around for a while, but we might interrupt them in the future. We feel this is fair to our backers.
I have a good question but it is not here. What should I do?
Post it in the comments.
MP will be really interesting!
