In 2022, Soulstone Survivors first entered Early Access. The game, which is an action roguelike with "bullet heaven" elements, sees players take on the role of "Void Hunters" to take on enormous bosses empowered by the titular Soulstones. Now, after around three years in Early Access, the game will see its full release on June 17, 2025. The developers of Soulstone Survivors are excited for the launch. It will come with new characters, weapons, story elements, and an entirely new chapter. They are also grateful for the feedback provided by players throughout the Early Access period.
"If we didn't do Early Access and just developed it behind closed doors, it would be a completely different game," Game Smithing founder Allan Smith told The Best War Games at Gamescom LATAM 2025. From the beginning of their journey, the developers of Soulstone Survivors knew that they wanted the community to be involved. Throughout the Early Access period, they made changes based on player input, including the addition of the highly anticipated Titan Hunt game mode in a recent update. There are even more secrets and surprises coming in the full version of the game, Smith revealed, encouraging players who gave the game a try in Early Access to play the 1.0 release as well.
A Tale of Silent Depths Developer Talks Creating an Undersea Open World
A Tale of Silent Depths developer Eduardo Santos discusses the game's chilling underwater world and the eldritch horrors that inhabit it.
Soulstone Survivors Incorporated Player Feedback From The Beginning
"Working with the community has been really good, but really challenging as well," Smith said. Soulstone Survivors players, particularly those who were also fans of other games in the genre such as Vampire Survivors, were very honest with the developers about what was and was not working. One issue that cropped up early was differing opinions about the game's complexity, like how many builds players could choose from, and how many unlockables - such as characters, skills, weapons, and more - that the game would contain. Smith described the situation:
"Some of it is already in the works. So just expanding the content, making sure there is enough depth. To be honest, I believe this is usually a problem - some players say it's already too much. There is quite a lot."
However, the team was ultimately able to incorporate a large amount of feedback successfully. In particular, Smith described the new Titan Hunt game mode as something that had been inspired by what players wanted to see in the game. Earlier this year, Soulstone Survivors also held a Community Skins challenge, where players could design character and weapon skins. The winning skins were made available for free to all players, and included references to Tomb Raider, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and more.
Soulstone Survivors Will Continue Working With The Community
As the game prepares to launch in its 1.0 version, Smith confirmed that the developers of Soulstone Survivors will continue their policy of listening to the community and taking feedback into account for future updates. He addressed The Best War Games's readers directly: "Reach out. We would love to hear from you." Smith also confirmed that the developers of the Survivors- like want to keep updating the game and making fan-requested changes "for as long as the community wants it to last."
Smith and the team at Game Smithing have also found unique ways to say "thank you" to the community that has supported them throughout Soulstone Survivors' Early Access period. "Right now, we just released a major update, and we have some new bosses," Smith told The Best War Games. "So we're naming the creatures after the main players from the community, as a sort of thank you, because they're really part of the game." Void Hunters who download Soulstone Survivors when it fully releases will be able to encounter monsters and bosses named after some of the roguelike game's most influential community members.