Alpha

So, when do you expect the alpha and beta to begin?

I don't get why people are so eager to play the alpha. You're not going to be playing a finished game. There will be bugs, frustrations, and all kinds of issues to work out. And if you're doing your JOB as a tester, you'll be trying to find them and reporting them. Personally, I'd rather wait a year for the game itself to be released, so I can play the polished, completed version.

That said, Supcom was one of the few games I ever bothered to beta test, and I'll probably be involved with PA as well, mainly to make sure it works well on Linux, since there will probably be fewer testers on that platform. But I sure don't mind waiting for it.

As to when you can expect the alpha to be available, I wouldn't count on it to be available before early 2013, and that's being optimistic. While the devs may have been planning PA for a long time, getting a working game takes a lot of time, especially one of this scope. No doubt the beta will precede the release by 2-3 months, at earliest.

So relax, be patient, play some TA/FA/ZK, cause the alpha sure won't be coming as soon as the Kickstarter ends.

believe me... its always a difference between nothing and a prototype.

Minecraft alpha and even pre alpha was awesome.

As someone who was lucky enough to be invited into one of the very first waves of SMNC beta testers (which you could call an alpha); I can tell you that alpha is fun for derping about, but you actually spend a lot of time trying to re-create bugs, exploiting the system, and just breaking things. Victory will be surrendered in the name of building enough tanks to coat entire planets (I plan to, if you wish to help I'm happy for assistance) many times over.

Serious games will be had once Uber decides to roll out the beta. It's where you'll see an influx of new players. Getting the balance spot-on will be done here, the balance will be moderately well polished beforehand because I have an incredibly strong feeling that there's a lot of competitive players in the alpha. They'll provide data to Uber on what's too strong and too weak (and mainly they'll yell angrily if they think it's not in a good state).

I've been involved in early testing before, and yeah, it's different to a full release, but it's fun to be involved and and try and break everything. I was assuming it would be sometime Q1 2013, but curious if see if there was any plans.

Breaking things is fun. It usually starts with a question. And if your lucky the answer is yes this does break the game.

You cannot call it alpha, because alpha and beta test are simply not the same.

Wait, you guys haven't got your alpha invite emails yet?

Please point me to the industry accepted standard that defines just what each testing stages entails; IEEE????, ISO????.
The only thing you can be (almost) sure of is Alpha will happen before Beta.

Depending on your definition of alpha. The traditional SDLC calls pre-alpha not feature-complete. From my experience, this really isn't applicable to the SDLC of a game, as games aren't feature-complete until near the final steps - right before release. Pretty much every beta I've been in was actually a pre-alpha.

If you want to use the more popular definition of beta, then it's just a matter of how buggy the game was, and what the developers intend to gain from giving people access to the not-yet-released game. I could be entirely wrong, but I'll hazard a guess that beta is for balance, load-testing, and testing on a wider range of computers than done in-house. And alpha is for finding leaks, holes, and flaws.

Not sure if trolling or not. I only pledged last night, and I've been studying all day. If there's an email from Uber in my inbox I'll be failing next week's quiz. ;D

I've been following KerbalSpaceProgram for about a year and half now, and there is nothing like seeing the developers add in features and bug fixes over a period of time. Its interesting to see, and a lot of us will like contributing to the final polish of the game by helping the developers track down bugs.

Im already playing... right now...
But I have to say, those loading times are huge! :mrgreen:

Because if I have fears about balance I can try to abuse the hell out of something to give the devs a head ache. Somebody mentioned (not sure if on here or Reddit) that asteroid bombing might be over powered. Well get in the alpha or beta and try rock bombing everyone. If you win 99% of the time it is OP and you should present your evidence to Uber. If you lose a lot maybe rock bombing isn't a problem (or maybe it is because it should work occasionally?).

When you are in alpha you are actively trying to break the game. Break it as in cause it to fall to pieces and break it as in find ways to destroy the fun or competitive qualities of a game. You do this because you want a good game out at the end.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be in the alpha.

The game might be terrible at that point, but at that point it is still early enough for me to provide feedback to the devs which could actually be implemented.

Have you never played a game and noticed something which felt like a bad way of doing something with an incredibly obvious solution? No matter how big or experienced your team, they are bound to occur. I just wish more games would ask someone what they thought before it was too late to change it.

Also, quick question: Is the estimated delivery date listed on kickstarter for the finished product, the alpha, or the beta?

It's the finished product. Neutrino has been very, very cagey about alpha/beta dates so far.

Man, they keep banging on about how they already have an engine, and they are all super experienced devs, and all their costs are so low...

But I will be seriously amazed if they manage to make a game as awesome as it sounds in the small timeframe and tiny budget they are working from.

That alone should be reason enough to want the documentary made.

The fun in playing alpha is searching for bugs and then when you found a couple using bug upon bug upon bug, just to see how much you can break the game.
It's aweome, in robot arena 2 I was able to build flying and wall riding robots and even robots than had their weapons flying all over the place.
The look on the faces of my friends was priceless.

I'm really looking forward to walk my commander through planets and fire a destroyed cannon.

like, 3-6 months long?

and yes Pawz, your're very funny.