I have a question about the $30 Kickstarter. You mentioned on the AMA that it was going to be released September 2013 (the beta for the $30+ kickstarter donors, not the official release).
So my question is, why why wait until September? That’s four and a half months from now. You’ll have so much done by then, and anything you can release that’s playable, in my opinion is ready for beta release. So why not release it when the Kickstarter ends? There might not be a lot of content, but it’s enough to tool around with.
I think it’s due to the state of the game right now, namely, it’s not in a playable one.
I don’t know if you’ve seen [urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=buOBdpQYN14] this video [/url], but I think that might be the state of things, obviously we can’t be too sure.
As such there really isn;t that much to do and it’s not going to benefit anyone releasing that, best just wait for December to get the beta out there.
@MiniUSB
Most or at least many people hope for a much more early release than actually December 2013 for the Beta. September 2014 is the planned release for 1.0
There is a lot of debating about the Pro’s and Con’s about a more early release aside of versions for Youtubers like the very slim Pre-Alpha.
My personal guess on the topic is, RE will slowly pick this or that person and hand out versions to broaden the available Testers. Call it Alpha or Beta or whatever you like. The right now 3 People will not be enough for extensive testing in the long run. They will get some more people, for that reason is the Kickstarter in the end, but I doubt this will be enough for the needed testing, even more so as they need people not just used to Windows-PC’s but Linux-PC’s and Mac’s. Unless they put most of the money into the hardware to cover many aspects… having people who help voluntarily will be the best. Still, they need to hit a spot where they can say “This is good enough to hand it out and let the guys help locate bugs.” and seemingly, they are just not at this point right now.
@Geoffers747
Remembering all the input I have… which means Q&A’s, Streams, Forum and so on… I remember that it was mentioned, that what you can see in the Kickstarter-Video actually is already available. So quite more than just building in the way you can see in the Pre-Alpha. One might remember @Tom’s Streams. In one he showcased the actual way to build which is (right now) not the same anymore as in the Pre-Alpha. You first place floors then walls
Yer that’s very true, I still think it is in everyone’s best interest to release beta when they’ve aimed for, but I suppose if they’re in a happy place with it and want to get out there beforehand, then go for it!
ill be the first to admit, i would just as soon play a dodgy build right now, than wait one more minute… but im in software development, and can detach myself from what i know isnt a finished product, let alone one that meets typical beta requirements…
some gamers require immediate gratification though, and simply cant distinguish between alpha/beta/release (or refuse to do so)… they want to play the game n0aw!, but when given something that isnt nearly representative of a finished product, they’ll go into n3rd rage fits, spewing ugly comments about how lackluster a developer company X is for releasing this paltry excuse for a game…
takes a deep breath
and now that i’ve come down from my soapbox, we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled broadcast…
The videos we have seen do not nessacerily match the real playability of the current build. As anyone in software development is likely to know. If you are simply making a demonstration or video it is possible to jury-rig a lot of things together and put endless manual work into having a very fragile model play out for just one run. Where to a normal user even running the program would be complex and irritiating. I think the devs will want to get at very least a game that can be run and demonstrate a few moderately features before going into alpha/beta.
There is also the issue nowadays with the term beta meaning anywhere from barely playable with massive amounts of core content to add all the way up to a nearly finished product that’s basically just a bug testing phase. From the sounds of things I’d say it’s more likely to end up near the second than the first out of those two but I’d prefer an earlier release with the first myself.
Yes, seconded on this. I believe it is a change over time. Beta used to mean feature complete but lacking slightly in stability. Perhaps with a few very minor features or interface nicities missing. Alpha had a wider meaning, posibly meaning less complete though all the core features would be there. Release candidate finally meant complete but just a final bug test phase.
These days it seems to have become blurred so that any of those terms could mean any of those things though notably beta often means far less complete than it used to mean.
I for one am interested in how complete the devs plan to make the game before a first released build though trust their judgement in when it will be ready for public use.
