It’s tempting to villainise developers for not coming good on stratospheric Early Access promises, especially as you hand over your own money to ostensibly see those promises realised. In StarForge, they promised an FPS/RPG/RTS hybrid set on a distant planet, in The Stomping Land they promised dino-riding, in Godus they promised to make you a GOD, and each time they let you down. Damn them. Damn them all! Right?
The Dead Linger is one of the Steam Early Access disasters we should aim to learn from.
But how does an Early Access failure look from the other perspective - from the developer who’s inside the proverbial hut, peeking out through the curtains at the silhouettes of backers’ pitchforks, glinting against a backdrop of flame and probably-not-entirely-reasonable anger? Not all developers behind Early Access disasters had evil intentions. Most were just out of their depth.