Alpha/beta deployment/update procedures

what procedures are in place distribute the Alpha/beta versions of the game? how will the game update to future versions?

It would be annoying i'm sure to have people reporting bugs in older versions that are fixed in the current version, but that people haven't updated to. Seeing as there is no server to log into to validate your game, how will Uber keep all of it's testers/customers running the same version of the game?

All distributions of the games will be delivered in handy A4 size paper by carrier pigeon in binary.

Or there will be a download link with a patcher or launcher ( most likely )

Or the carrier pigeon thing.

Distributed on zip disks.

Hope you still have one of those.

They will print out the binaries as base64 encoded text, scan them, put them as a bmp within a docx to print them, send them with pigeons to your address so you can scan them in and ocr (or just type manually if you dont have ocr software ready) them to base64 and convert them back binary.

seriously: you will be asked to log in to the official service when you play online and it will give you the patches you need, or something among those lines.

Zip disks were the bomb... iomega software ftw.

But in all seriousness, I like the carrier pigeon idea.

I do not think that phrase means what you think it means..

Torrent!

Wait no, that can't work...

It'd work just fine if they need to release updates that require large amounts of content. They could always just upload it to dropbox or something too

I suspect the game is going to be relatively small size-wise though, considering that a lot of the content is procedurally generated.

very valid point there, i dont see why anything should eat up disk space in exception of the code itself and textures

minecraft is a very good example of this, even tho it got small textures compared.

They have been using amazon servers so far I think, which is fine with me, since the are really speedy and powerful

My guess is Steam. Those that back get "beta" accounts for the game. Should be simple enough.

Not Steam. They aren't a only-steam game, plus some people who like this game dislike Steam and we already gave them our word.

That being said, you download the UberNet Client, and you download it through it. The Ubernet client currently is used for SMNC, the F2P game. It updates through the developer's own system. The only thing the devs need to do, is seperate the client from SMNC-only, so the client can run and log people in first, then they can run a game through it. Currently, when you run SMNC, it runs their client and then the game all in a row without options in-between.

So for the record if you want the most correct so far answer: UberNet, a game manager for Uber games, that they could host on this site and steam and amazon and whatever site anyone really wants, and the game manager downloads your game for you.

Can I get a dev to agree with this or correct it?

iomega.
So much time spent with those MEGA floppys...

I would go with the classics: punch cards
with every update you get a pdf to print out and feed it to you punch card reader.

I'll go all the way and say Ticker-tape, we're not in the Dark Ages afterall. The risk of paper cuts might be a little high though.

Maybe they can splurge and give us magnetic tape reels, more costly to ship but at least you can't hurt yourself on them...
Though I'm not sure everyone is ready for such wizardry yet. The common view of magnets is one of disbelief, or so the internet tells me.

Honestly, im a fan of magnetic tape.

I, and all of my friends who know about PA would like to use Steam for this, and Steam only.

It won't work that well for alpha and closed beta (restricted access plus NDAs and all that jazz), although it would be fine for open beta and release. They also need to apply to Steam for the game, and it's unlikely they'll do so prior to beta simply because so much is likely to change (including space requirements, estimated number of updates etc.) before we get to a stable, open beta stage.

I'd have guessed a custom client even before thetrophysystem mentioned Uber already have a custom client, so I'll second that; I'd be surprised if they weren't aiming for UberNet integration. Using the logins we already have registered here, no less, which would let them automatically ensure people have the correct bits (e.g. pre-order bonuses) for their account

Note that none of this precludes Steam, or indeed Steam integration (including matchmaking). It just means that the initial builds are unlikely to be available directly via Steam.

I recently bought FarCry 3 on Steam, and that uses the Ubisoft custom client (UPlay) for the Steam game. Theres no reason PA couldn't be similar.

Zip was ok at 100MB, but Jaz drives (1-2GB capacity) were far more useful.

Also it's technically Iomega hardware in the case of the Zip (and Jaz)

There's a reason that Zip drives didn't stick around for long. Zip disks were great... until you tried storing any data for more than a month. Then everything was gone. The best use for a Zip drive was to throw it away.

Currently Castle Story, another kickstarter game with alpha (or technically prototype) and beta access for backers is doing very well with Steam early access. Backers got emailed the key for steam when access was available, and then all updates were automatic.

Admittedly, I don't know how the update submission process works, so I don't know how feasible this would be for PA.