A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief (now at Early Access v0.9.1) $

[getter77]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/373470 Win/Mac $9.99

A hardcore rogue-lite action RPG where you possess and play as monsters. Narrowly avoid death as you explore challenging, ever-changing dungeons, and possess any body you can to survive!

Why Early Access?
“Our previous game, A Wizard's Lizard, greatly benefited from player feedback and suggestions. We thrive when we get the input of our community and feed off the excitement and support.

A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief has been in development for six months and we feel now is the right time to get players involved in the ongoing evolution of our game.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“We'd like to continue developing Soul Thief for around six months. Support us and help make a great game!”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“Our plan is to include more dungeons to explore, more enemies to possess, and more shenanigan-inducing items to collect. In addition, we plan to create challenges which span multiple dungeons and secrets galore!”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief currently includes three unique dungeons, the Haunted Library, Animated Kitchen, and Cursed Courtyard. Each dungeon includes numerous traps and monsters with unique abilities that can be possessed by the player. Players can collect Tickets which allow them to purchase persistent toys for Raga's Room.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“The price of A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief will increase upon full release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We thrive in open development and we're very active on our own forum, as well as the Steam forum and other social channels such as YouTube and Twitter.”

Should be interesting to see how this fares versus their first project---I've got a good feeling that it'll be far superior from the lessons they've learned.   

[jere]

I've been listening to their podcast, LostCast, for quite a while. Very interesting stuff.

I hope they do well, but to be honest, I'm a little nervous for them. The Kickstarter campaign was way off the mark. The "haunted house" setting seems a bit odd. They had a minute long gameplay teaser with no narration as their main video. The game is billed as a "twin stick shooter" and there was no shooting in the video either.

Anyway, the possession mechanic sounds pretty baller and if the reviews are good maybe I'll pick it up early.

[getter77]

The benefit this time is them not being so directly in the shadow and expectations of Binding of Isaac---weird bits may well be, but this seems much more on their own terms, a better underlying tech, a something unto themselves.  I have to reckon the Early Access period will see enough folks get on them to shore up at least the fundamentals.