Slay the Spire 2 just arrived in Steam’s Early Access and has already achieved staggering player counts. Discover how developer Mega Crit plans to handle the game’s development.
Slay the Spire 2 Early Access Focuses on Game Content and Balance
Slay the Spire 2 Climbs to Third Most Played Game on Steam
- [1] Image taken from SteamDB
Slay the Spire 2’s Steam Early Access (EA) has officially launched on March 5, rewarding roguelike deckbuilder fans with a sequel nearly a decade after the first game reshaped the genre. Despite being in EA, it has already ascended to an all-time peak of 282,314 concurrent players on Steam. This "spire" is nearly five times the peak achieved by the original game at 57,025 players, which only occurred when the game was offered at its lowest price of $2.49 during a Steam sale.
With these skyrocketing numbers, Slay the Spire 2 has bested Marathon as the platform's top-selling title and is currently its fourth most played game, standing right behind the ever-present Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG: Battlegrounds.
Accompanying the roguelike deckbuilder’s statistical success is amassing "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam. Here at Game8, our review has deemed it as still the deckbuilder to beat due to it standing head and shoulders above the original in terms of quality.
Devs Say They're Microtransaction Haters
As the sequel enters the EA phase expected to span one to two years, developer Mega Crit clarifies how they aim to work toward a balance that favors player experience—from streamlining modding to adamantly rejecting microtransactions.
Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano spoke with Destructoid about maintaining the original Slay the Spire experience, but now "considerably more so than the first game," as game development has advanced significantly since then. He described game content and balance as their "lifeblood" that constantly propels them forward.
Yano outlined key points and features that would enrich player experience, reaffirming their stance from the onset. Firstly, while several players still "threaten to buy all and any cosmetics" they might hypothetically release, Mega Crit refused to relent to aggressive monetization practices. "We're microtransaction haters," he said, reflecting the no-monetization rule they have been adhering to since the first Slay the Spire.
Another important point to note is their deliberate decision to make modding easier for the players. "Both in STS 1 and STS 2, you can replace entire swathes of code, so you can kind of do anything," he stated. "A lot of our focus this time around is reducing friction, so players have more resources and easier entry points to work with mods."
Nonetheless, even though the game is currently launching in an unfinished state—with Yano admitting that it is "missing so much content"—the developers assured fans that they will not simply sit back and allow modders to finish the game for them. An adaptive, reactive development style is what they are striving for, since updating too frequently or making "too many aggressive balance changes" may upset the feeling of "progress and accomplishments" for the player.
Win Streak Tracker Enhances Experience
In line with the new features coming to Slay the Spire 2, the game will now integrate a win streak tracker for each character in order for players to "be a bit more competitive," even facing against their own previous records.
However, the developers are taking a relaxed approach by not installing "invasive" anti-cheat, valuing player privacy and a lightweight game experience over a leaderboard strictly enforced by code. "At some level, it'll have to be merit-based, but we're launching in early access, so maybe new methods and technologies may come about," he added.
He went on to elaborate on the topic of human experience versus mathematical perfection. Regardless of whether an AI guarantees a victory from any winnable seed, Yano asserted that the joy of struggle is what keeps players engaged in Slay the Spire in the long run. "Chess is largely solved by really sophisticated algorithms, but making mistakes is fun," he said, "maybe just as fun as making great choices and seeing them play out."
Slay the Spire 2 is now available in Early Access on PC via Steam. To stay updated about the game, check out our article below!
Sources:
*[1] SteamDB | Slay the Spire 2
