Besiege is a physics based building game in which you construct medieval siege engines and lay waste to immense fortresses and peaceful hamlets. Build a machine which can crush windmills, wipe out battalions of brave soldiers and transport valuable resources, defending your creation against cannons, archers and whatever else the desperate enemies have at their disposal. Create a trundling behemoth, or take clumsily to the skies, and cause carnage in fully destructible environments. Ultimately, you must conquer every Kingdom by crippling their castles and killing their men and livestock, in as creative or clinical a manner as possible!
I bought the game and it is really fun. The game is extremely short, but it is in alpha. If they add steam workshop and a way for people to make levels this game will be a definite recommend.
So how does this early access stuff work? Steam says buy Beseige now for $7.79 CAD, but what exactly am I buying?
I guess you could say it's like buying a Alpha/Beta product. It's not finished so it doesn't have all the features, might have bugs, etc. However, you are buying in early and supporting the developer and will get all future updates, so you'll get to watch the game grow per se. It's fully playable as-is, just limited features and levels.
My understanding of most early releases, is that you will get the finished product once it is finished. It's a bit like a pre-order with an early access bonus for doing so.
Does that mean that upon release, I will have to buy it again, or does early access generally give you the final product too?
You're early access, so you are buying into the game early. You'll get the final release as well, if it ever makes it there. The problem with early access is that it gives the developer little incentive to actually finish the game since they already got all their money, so very few of them actually make it to a final release stage.