Release date of this summer realistic?

Uber,
Here are my thoughts on what will keep the fans thrilled and hopefully will bring you good press and lots of money.

1. Under promise, over deliver.
   You guys have kind of already promised the sky. If what you have shown us is any indication of what is to come, you've got this one in the bag.
   I don't think Valve Time is what you're aiming for... (see Suggestion #3)

• Early and Long beta.
  The longer the beta, the more input your hardcore fans will be able to provide, the happier they will be, they will be more active in spreading good news and the more polished it will be upon release for the final press.

• When game is "officially" released do FREQUENT updates and balances changes.
  (ie. When reviews, first impressions and "wtf is" starts hitting the press)
  2-3 weeks cycles, even if they are tiny tweaks, it lets everybody know you guys are committed to polishing the game until it gleams.
  This will keep the momentum up, give hope to those grievances or suffering from bugs. It will also show a commitment to fixing balance which will help promote competitive play on the eSports scene.

• Keep up communication with Total Biscuit.
  He's influential, well spoken and seems like a real fan.

then again, perhaps I'm talking out of my ***.
Community, feel free to shoot me down!

Regarding the above post, I think it is possible to patch a strategy game TOO frequently. SOmething that seems OP might just need a bit of time for the correct counter-tactic to be found, so I would caution against doing balance updates every week.

FAForever is on a roughly three-month patch cycle, and that seems to work well. With more players it could be quicker (say monthly for PA), but unless something is blatantly broken (as opposed to just irritating or difficult to deal with), I say give it time to bed in.

I like all of these suggestions! Good work!

Uh oh. You just promised something. Didn't Eka and Scathis tell you not to do that!?

I pretty much agree with all of this.

My biggest concern is that people will think the alpha represents the final polish level. It's going to be a true alpha and the beta will be a true beta (e.g. lots of rough edges).

You guys are a hard bunch to please

If alpha is me being able to build 10 types of grey blobs to attack an AI that does nothing. I will love it.

And judging from the pictures I've seen, the grey blobs will at least have my team color and the construction lines!

NOT ME I JUST WANT TO PLAY THE GAME



AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

I started preparing for the release the first day I saw the kickstarter.

I will be ready in a few years probably. I have waited for this game ever since the SupCom2 debacle

I've been pretty happy with the fairly steady stream of info from Uber about PA's progress. So far this has been an exemplary kickstarter project, and I can't wait to see what they reveal for tomorrow's livestream!

Me too! All my roommates watch things like sony's updates or other tech stuff and I'm all disinterested... This is the first livestream I've ever been super excited to watch!!

So....Its gonna be released on 11:59 on September 20th? Awesome!

I jest I jest.

make the beta early, and the beta long. thats all i need.

pfff beta. Alpha I say!

Livestream announcement: Alpha access coming next week!

all the cool kids are in the alpha. so the summer we will be totally ready for the game to be awesome.

Doing it right is far far more important to me than releasing according to schedule. When I first saw the estimated release date I thought there's no way you would do it, but from the progress reports and what you've shown us you seem to be making incredibly fast progress and it doesn't seem like Summer is too much of a stretch. I really agree with the long Beta suggestion though, accomplishing so many new things is going to be a massive achievement but there will also probably be all kinds of balance issues and things to do to make it play great that no one has had to work out before because no ones made a game on this scale before. A long Beta will make the difference between a really clever innovative game and one of the most significant games of the next decade I think. Planetary Annihilation is an opportunity to show a whole new take on the genre like TA did.

Also, most of the people who are really eager for the game will probably be in the Beta at least, so once you get that out fan pressure for a release will probably be mostly alleviated for whatever that's worth.

Equation changes with Kickstarter. We're the sponsors of the project, so slipping dates will induce frustration.

I'm predicting completion or late beta status by late August.
Just in time to show it off at PAX Prime 2013

Maintaining the schedule is the best idea. If you do not meet deadlines then people will loose interest or they will be mad at the game makers and wonder where their preorder is.