Overfall - Closed Beta Started

The closed beta for Overfall has started for all Kickstarter backers who mentioned they wanted to receive a Steam key. For those who want a GOG key, they will have to wait until the devs feel they are ready for a DRM free key.

For those who haven't backed, but still want to play the game: Overfall will be available on Steam Early Access on March 1. They are looking for feedback in the weeks leading up to that date to improve the game further.

Here is an overview of their plans and notes, which has a reference to Chris Avellone in it.

• At the moment, the game is mostly stable and polished with the core game completed; and we are working on balancing current features as well as adding more content to deliver even more fun.
• Note that you may encounter some disembodied voices, teleporting heroes, or paralyzed NPCs. These are perfectly normal breakdowns on the current state of development, and will be resolved shortly. Please start playing the game now if you are OKAY with that. 
• Visit and follow our test Trello - a tool we use to store and fix known issues. 
• Before the main release we plan to polish and test our Story Builder - a tool accessible to anyone with Overfall that allows them to create their own stories and upload them to the Steam Workshop. 
• One of the main strengths of Overfall comes from the stories you encounter during a playthrough, an island-to-island experience where you don’t just sail around trying to save the world - you can just as easily encounter a charming stand-alone story or a self-contained quest progression. The more of these encounters we have, the richer and more fun the overall experience will be. We wanted these encounters to be perfect, and to achieve that, we started searching for ways to improve our storytelling. One day - Yagiz introduced us to (as you see them both in our credits now) one of the most prominent game designers and writers of our era, Chris Avellone himself, who you will remember from Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale series, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout: New Vegas, FTL and many others. We came up with the idea of having a Game Writing Style Guide, which would explain the basics of creating a story in Overfall, give some ideas on how to write a good story, and outline Overfall’s writing style with a couple of examples. And we already were in touch with the best person for writing this kind of guide, not only because he’s a great writer with worlds of experience, but also because he’s great mentor material. Thankfully Chris was happy to work on it and thought laying out one might be helpful for both Overfall and for any budding game writers out there. Now our plan is to finish and release the story builder along with the game, and to write more stories in the light of the Game Writing Style Guide.