This is an interesting business model for indie developers!

I recently logged on to Impulse (smaller brother of VALVe's Steam) and something caught my eye:
70% discount for a pre-alpha of Miner Wars 2081 - WTF?!?!

Turns out Miner Wars, developed by Keen Software House, is in its early stages and the indie developer allows gamers access to their pre-alpha build in return for $10/10. And the ten bucks also get you the full version once the game is released. Keen SH doesn't have a publisher in the usual sense but works with the money from the pre-orders and private investors.

I was curious and at first a little hesitant, but then I thought: What the hell, you spend more money on coffee every week... I pre-ordered it mostly to find out what this is all about.

Currently the game really is in a very early stage. They have a bunch of models in the game, the textures look okay, but if you know what you are looking for you will quickly see that many textures are placeholders for better ones down the road. The whole thing is what o and Scathis would probably call a white-box with some eye candy.

However, flying the ships is fun and you can already mine some ore and shoot holes in the asteroids. (That's one of the key features of the game: It has a voxel engine and fully destructible terrain. Think: The asteroids are made of thousands of LEGO blocks that you can shoot and mine. It's the same principle as in Minecraft. *waves at Eka* )

After maybe one or two hours you have seen everything there is to see atm. Multiplayer is not yet implemented, so unfortunately I can't invite friends for races through the mining tunnels yet.

Keen SH seems to have been a lot more successful than they had hoped for though. Stardock, the company behind Impulse, put the spotlight on Miner Wars and they got a lot of new people testing their little project. Even better, another private investor committed to the cause recently, probably after seeing how successful the pre-alpha launch was.

What do you think, is it a good idea to release a pre-alpha this way to test the waters and gather some money? Would you be willing to pay $10 to get a white-box version with a little eyecandy thrown on top? Eka has just posted the early screens of MNC's white-boxing phase, would you have payed $10 for it?

Miner Wars is currently being developed for the PC but an Xbox version is planned. The pre-alpha thing only works on the PC, I don't think Microsoft would allow something similar on the Xbox.

Interesting indeed. I might be tempted.
Is there a demo for the pre-alpha? (Yes, i know that sounds silly)

Minecraft has sold over 600k copies and it's still in Alpha. It's allowed Notch to start up a studio.

I'm wondering if minecraft is a exception, not a rule.

I'd be willing to do it if I can get the game for cheaper and my opinion on balancing the game is taken under advisement. In essence, I'd be paying to be a playtester and simultaneously, because the company would be losing money by selling a half-price game vs. a full-price one, they'd be investing in my progress. It certainly would be a risky investment. I hate to reinforce the scam idea of paying to go to work, but any true professional has passion for the work, not the money.

(Yes, I hate capitalism and all for which it stands.)

I'm not sure, I think so. You can download the client and give it a try without key or try the test build:
http://www.minerwars.com/Downloads.aspx

Please don't be angry if it doesn't work and you downloaded 700mb for nothing.

Minecraft is really awesome, I couldn't stop playing it. I managed to take a break from it for now though. The only thing that needs improvement imo is that you are too save once you have set up shop.

Anyway, should you guys finally decide to make a PC version and you offer the alpha or beta for $10 or something - I'm game.

Organous, I'm fine with that model for indie studios but I would not pay $10 for a game with a big publisher behind it (Spore and EA come to mind). But the gaming market desperately needs indies with new ideas and if my $10 help...

And by that you mean make me afraid to go anywhere outside where I can't see for like 500m in every direction...

That would be epic!

Right now I'm hooked on X3: Terran Conflict. You can build large industry complexes and the economy is really challenging. Graphics are beautiful and you can fly space ships and shoot down pirates and the like. What more can you ask for? Highly recommended for everybody who wants a space opera like Freelancer with economic depth. The user interface is horrible though, too many options for everything...

Mike, you are evil. And you have great ideas! I'd love to see the little BOOMboxes blowing up stuff for the others. I would really enjoy a challenge where you have to fight for your existence every night.

I can't convince you to improve the flying AI of X by any chance? The AI has crashed my space ship into asteroids a few times already... :S

Space Minecraft?