Beta time?

[Ender]

So, i haven't really seen anyone mention it, but with alpha numbers rising, when is the cutoff point for it to become a Beta?

[Monkfish]

When it's ready. I'd rather that then it "Go Beta" at an arbitrary date.

[ShadowTani]

I'm guessing the time it's ready to go beta is the time it's ready to go Steam. At what point that happens I think will just be speculative even if Tynan himself made an estimate. I think it would be more interesting to speculate about what features will go into the game before it goes beta.

I personally would definitively like too see both the research and trade system fleshed out properly by then. What about you guys?

[Architect]

The numbers aren't rising that fast? Its been about two months since it was first ever released XD I wouldn't say beta is any time soon.

[Celthric Aysen]

when its ready, and its time. dude developing games takes alot of time and bug fixes. do you want a beta that constantly crashes every 5min?

[Ender]

guys i wasn't saying its time for beta, i was just trying to start a discussion as to beta.

[Pirx Danford]

Well the default definition is that the Beta phase starts when the game is feature complete and only bugfixing and rebalancing is left, but with more and more games doing that perpetual beta concept (like minecraft for example) the definitions are not as tight anymore.

On another note, availability on Steam does not have to be public.
For example I got a Steam key for the Stonehearth Alpha, but its not available to buy on Steam, only the Kickstarter backers or people that buy it early on the games website can get a key.

But downloading Rimworld through sendowl is also completely fine so its not a big deal anyway :-)