Game over, or not: what became of Steam's first Early Access games?

In 2013, Steam players were first offered the option to pay for unfinished games. We uncover the fate of that first wave of titles - some of which were never released

On 6 December 2018, game developer Chris Hunt's magnum opus was finally complete. Hunt had been working on Kenshi, in which players navigate a tribe of people through a strange, low-tech alien world, for more than 10 years. You might think finishing it would be a huge milestone in Hunt's career. But if anything, the opposite is true.

"No one was really bothered by the official release, because nothing will change," says Hunt, who speaks in a laid-back, laconic fashion that makes him seem affable and yet strangely distant. "People kept saying, 'Ah, don't release it too soon.' I think they were worried that I was going to leave it buggy or incomplete."