Subset Games Forum

Looking forward to playing this without mouse lag and shitty Onlive graphics!

I first backed for $10, after the demo I upped this to $25 for beta access. So when do you guys roughly think it's going to happen?

Hey,

As stated on Kickstarter:

The exact date and details are still uncertain but we will attempt to start it within a couple months of the end of the Kickstarter

So around the 1st of June, but I'm sure that Justin will let us know more

Stelly

I don't understand the point of holding back the beta, you should just take a "minecraft" approach to it and release the beta or alpha and keep adding to it as you get time. People would love the game in its current state and you can take your time to constantly update on it.

Muramas wrote:I don't understand the point of holding back the beta, you should just take a "minecraft" approach to it and release the beta or alpha and keep adding to it as you get time. People would love the game in its current state and you can take your time to constantly update on it.

I'll have to second this motion myself. From what I saw in the videos themselves it looks like something I want to get my hands on and enjoy now. I didn't get a chance to try the on-live demo myself. However, I fully support the devs decision on holding back if that's what they feel is best.

I'm not sure about that, when you know about alot of bugs yourself you want to get them sorted first before having to analyse bug reports, and then finding out that the half an hour you spent analysing the bug is on that you have already raise and could have been fixing.

Personally I would fix all glaring and known bugs and then release a beta for ones that a more remote or hardware specific.

Stelly

I agree with Stelly. Just because they can demo the game doesn't mean it should be released into the wild. They just mentioned they were created a new system of generating ships, which could cause major problems without enough QA testing.

I would rather have my first experience with the game be clean and bug-free. If the game is unstable, it might deter me from playing it further, even if they fix it down the road.

First impressions and all that.

I'm ok with waiting. The definition of "beta" in relation to software development has declined in it's meaning over the years. Beta is supposed to mean functionally and feature complete, with lots of bugs. Alpha means functionally complete, with some features missing and (again) lots of bugs. A prototype (which many alphas/betas are these days) is something that has basic functionality with a few features and what functions/features aren't implemented are blurred over (i.e. a smoke & mirrors effect like having a static image instead of controls that will be in a finished game).

So June is cool with me. Get the features and functionality done, and when you have a buggy beta to test out, let me know.

bFusion wrote:I would rather have my first experience with the game be clean and bug-free. If the game is unstable, it might deter me from playing it further, even if they fix it down the road.

First impressions and all that.

Sounds like you probably shouldn't be beta testing then. The whole point of beta testing is to find and report the bugs that the devs have missed. You should never expect the beta to be clean and bug-free.

timaeus wrote:

bFusion wrote:I would rather have my first experience with the game be clean and bug-free. If the game is unstable, it might deter me from playing it further, even if they fix it down the road.

First impressions and all that.

Sounds like you probably shouldn't be beta testing then. The whole point of beta testing is to find and report the bugs that the devs have missed. You should never expect the beta to be clean and bug-free.

Sadly, with how the likes of EA treats beta testing, the general public's opinion towards a Beta Test has shifted from a QA measuring stick into nothing but a demo. I'm eager to see this come up too, but let's let them decide when the best time to ask for help is. I'd rather not put too much pressure on them to hurry.

Stelly has the right idea, I think. A beta release ought to be stable, and pretty close to feature complete. That's what was promised, and that's what I signed up for when I pledged to be a beta tester. I actually want to help with bug testing, but not in an alpha environment.

Also, Subset Games is not EA. I hope the meager 200k hasn't gone to their heads and they are now planning on buying a yacht for their CEO 'annual retreat'.