not decided, alpha will commence when the devs feel that enough progress has been made to warrant an alpha release to generate feedback, though the livestream the other day indicated that they did seem to think that the game would be in a playable state sometime nearing the end of the year, though that doesnt necessarily mean that its to the point where an alpha release would be warranted.
Sort of off topic and correct me if im wrong bu dosent the beta come out one or two months after the alpha is released?
not always, its a developers choice when to release an alpha or a beta, usually theyre released when the feel the game is at a point where feedback is required to dial in the experience or to slowly test the addition of new features before release
You guys need to let go of those terms alpha and beta. Uber used a system that you could call continued development for SMNC and I expect it will not be very different with PA. U What you really want to know is: When do you get an invite to play and a key, am I right? Sorry, nobody knows yet. But it will probably take a while since they just finished the Kickstarter. However, you can stick around and follow the early development process on the forum. The developers (especially neutrino) will be here and read suggestions and answer as many questions as their busy schedule allows.
As a software developer I'll never understand why people are so keen to use software in alpha status. :shock: From a users point of view I wouldn't want to touch my own alpha work with gloves and biohazard suits It's kind of moving into a house where the roof is made of plastic planes and doors and windows are just holes in the walls. Beta is of coure different
Agreed titus, the only reason I'll be even touching the alpha is to help catch any Linux issues, especially from a non-Ubuntu user's perspective. (Since I'm guessing that's the distro they'll be targeting.)
Well, in my case, I enjoy watching a game's mechanics evolve from 'so not complete' to 'this is a good game'.
When I play a game at launch, I'm like "OMG so buggy! What's wrong with balance? So much stuff is missing!", though I'm generally too polite to say it out loud. When I play a game from the alpha or even the beta, I'm like "Cool they fixed the kraken bug! The balance is much better now. Yes, they added the stuff!", though I'm generally too lazy to say it out loud. Basically, I like to see the game being slowly built. The bugs are just something we have to cope with (and report, if we're civil enough) as a counterpart. And sometimes, the bugs themselves can be awesome. Here's (attached file) what Mechwarrior Online decided to look like for a match a few days ago. Completely unplayable, but somehow it was visually great, in an indie retro sort of way. That's also why I'm very happy to be playing KSP since before there was even some trajectory indicator, let alone other celestial bodies. Guessing your way to orbit with dismantling rockets (there weren't strut connectors either) was hard as hell, but it was pretty fun. And each time you think you're becoming bored with the existing stuff, there is a new version adding new and exciting stuff to discover. So I hope to have the same sense of watching the game being built with PA.
