Farms - maybe
Food - maybe, Tom and Steph have done a lot of work recently on food, but whether it will make Preview Release, no word
Armor - maybe, doubtful
Defending attacks - hints at a one-way combat system, no actual knowledge
Gaining citizens - almost certainly, this is crucial to gameplay
Extent of building abilities - unknown, towers are unlikely in the initial release I’d say, but may follow soon after
If anyone could confirm or give views to give better information, I’d be grateful as I couldn’t be quoted on any of this.
Well you paid for a beta product. You knew very well that what would be playable is an unfinished product, yet you bought it anyway and are now upset that it’s missing content. Just be patient and continue beta testing on release. The more bugs we report the faster they fix and can move on to the next thing. Sorry bud, but you were told what you were getting
first and foremost (and this honestly isn’t directed at any one particular member ), remember what is being released in december, and what it is meant to accomplish…
its a preview release… its not a final, publicly accessible client… the intention of the release is not to “let me play early!”, its to “give me an opportunity to test the earliest builds of the game, in order to bug test and provide feedback to help improve the game before the eventual public release”…
you’re participating in an effort… a community test… you’re not getting early access to play a game… yes, of course it will be enjoyable… yes, there will be all sorts of fun! but the overriding intent should be to aid in improving upon what is originally delivered to the testing community…
I was replying to @ownerpure5 in a tongue in cheek manner.
In response to your original post - we have had no indication of the resolutions offered - however judging from Team Radiant’s ongoing commitment to making the game run on every machine they can (within reason) 720p resolution falls well within that framework.
Will it run in December I couldn’t tell you, will it run at some point - I would say with confidence yes.
I’ve heard it called beta and also preview release. Considering ‘beta’ is defined as 'feature complete’, might this actually be an ‘alpha’ release? Beta tends to indicate a more complete game that we’re likely so see next month.
The devs are consistently calling it a preview release because of the some of the same points you bring up, so yes this is more like a alpha than a beta
The way software is being developed and distributed has changed a lot recently.
While the wikipedia article is correct for the stages a software that gets a “final” status is going through, you get a hint at what is currently happening with the mention of “perpetual beta” but this is not sufficient.
Especially in regards to Kickstarter and Indie games it is becoming the norm that you get a very early “playable prototype”, which then is used for letting the community playtest and maybe even do modding already, or as some have creative reward tiers use that prototype for letting backers try out their special own content and so on.
As the new ways to do these things are mostly done by small companies it will take a while until formal declarations of the stages might find their appropriate names.
I believe it will boil down to different takes on the meaning of “prototype release”.
To try and make the static stage names fitting for this pretty new dynamic way is pretty fruitless in my opinion.
Partially agree. Take a game like Don’t Starve. During ‘alpha’ is was fairly playable, but much was broken or not yet implemented. Beta came and it was pretty well fleshed out, but still missing some content and still had it’s share of bugs. Starbound is headed for ‘beta’ and looks to be a pretty fleshed out game. Cube World is the most polished ‘alpha’ I’ve ever seen, with a huge, well stocked world, but still no quests or house building. Sounds about right for ‘alpha’. Stonehearth, though… I don’t know. Seems to still be pretty early in develpment to hang the name ‘beta’ on it, however you cut it. I think they’re right in calling it a ‘preview release’ rather than beta.
I thought Geoffers was a member of the dev team itself. Obviously that turned out to be wrong.
Why on earth does everyone treat me like I’m stupid?^^ I already got the difference between beta and preview after the first 5 answers. But still everyone tries to convince me
PS: All i’m writing is under strong influence of impatnieness hehehe
Well … that would certainly lead to some confusion!! I’m a mere moderator I’m afraid
Because you are! Well, apologies if that impression came across! I think there’s a tiredness in some of our responses, I’ll send you some delicious baked goods?
Originally it was called the ‘beta’ because that was just the generic term I suppose - as development has progressed they’ve taken to call it the preview release as they don’t wish to give the impression that it is something it is not.
Nobody lied at any stage, it’s just that as time has gone on they’ve been able to refine their goals and ambitions. I imagine in May it was difficult to imagine where they would be in December.
I know but i am sure a lot of people backed on the kickstarter 30$ or more to be able to play the beta(also to help the game) and not waiting for a bit of content being added from a build that was made months ago They probably should have typed in P.R instead of Beta :L cause a lot of people will prob be dispointed by the limite of contents there will be at the ‘‘beta’’ or P.R , i still want to try it out though.
Well, I think people were perhaps more on board with the model on offer - early access in December which will get updated throughout and beyond 2014.
To keep on calling it a ‘Beta’ build is perhaps unfair to both the build and the customer, as we’re not going to receive a version that contains everything we can expect Stonehearth to have.
When I said a build they had months ago, I meant that they had a working build at that point, with the systems as they were at that point. It was more of a testing ground rather than a completely workable and playable version. A lot has radically changed since then.
As I’ve said above, to me beta reflected the type of development we would see rather than the content, and as time has progressed they’ve realised that what will be released in December is not really the equivalent of a ‘beta’. I imagine their wealth of experience in software development meant that calling it a ‘beta’ was a betrayal to themselves
), remember what is being released in december, and what it is meant to accomplish…
So you are telling me that the devs actually lied during the kickstarter? o.o because it clearly says Beta
Well, apologies if that impression came across! I think there’s a tiredness in some of our responses, I’ll send you some delicious baked goods?
They probably should have typed in P.R instead of Beta :L cause a lot of people will prob be dispointed by the limite of contents there will be at the ‘‘beta’’ or P.R , i still want to try it out though.