Regarding Release & Beta, What You Should Know.

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Welcome to the Beta & Release Megathread. This thread is a place to discuss the release period for beta, and everything we can expect to see in it. I hope to cover the main questions about the release and beta of Starbound and provide you with up to date information.​

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We can expect most of the game to be finished within the BETA stage of release. This is normal in the beta stages of the game, as the primary focus is on bug fixing, not content addition. What that means is that we can expect most of what the developers are showing is now to be in the beta.​

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A lot of stuff won't make it in though. The storyline may not be in the beta, which is a big section of the game, it's likely that the developers don't want our first storyline experience to be a buggy one, and is why they are excluding it.​

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Without creating too much speculation, I'd like to assume we're quite close to a BETA release, Tiy had this to say on the matter, recently:​

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(Thanks to Kish for asking this and Garkarus for pointing it out!)​

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I'd like to believe we are around a month away from a BETA release, but that's my personal opinion and is likely to be wrong!​

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On release, it is expected that Starbound will be made available to purchase through the website. It is also confirmed for steam, and we have no worries about it getting on, it will NOT require greenlight, as Chucklefish have already had discussions with Valve about publishing on Steam.​

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It is unknown if the game will be released on steam during BETA as an early access game, for that we will have to wait and see.​

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The developers also plan to update the game for a long time after release at no additional cost. The main team will update for around a year, and then move on to other projects, at which time they will dedicate a sub-team to keep working on the game, producing new content and features, and fixing bugs for a long time after release.

Lastly, it will be available on Windows, Mac & Linux during beta and release. It was suggested the developers are considering porting to the Ouya gaming system, but no official word follows.​

 

sounds amazing. i hope PaperbatVG will be a beta tester

 

good idea Nat! Great post.

 

eww. PaperbatVG would bring a lot of the people that ruined the minecraft comunity to starbound. same with the yogscast, and... well, most of the people that uploads a lot of videos just like them

 

even though that may be true he is one of the best commentators i have heard.

 

I would like an open beta but a closed beta would be fine for me too since I'm not very fluent with my English so bug reports would be rather difficult for me to write...

By the way since some game developers give out beta invites to Lets Players, will there be a chance to give them to German Lets Players to? I'm not talking about myself but there is a pretty descend LP community in Germany with very good commentaries. I don't know what the devs think about this but I guess this would make Starbound famous also in not english speaking countries. You know...mutliculturalism and stuff^^

 

Starbound and Dark Souls for PC coming around this "summer", oh my good lord I can almost hear my wallet's content fading away.

That's some good info right here, thanks a lot, brotha.

 

Wolv21 deserves to be a beta vid taker he is awesome

 

Don't you guys see the part "It is also a possibility that NDAs will be used, although not confirmed in any way, an NDA is a contract signed by a beta tester, disallowing them to talk about, post information, images, videos etc, of the beta with anyone other than the developers, and other beta testers."

Granted it's cool that you are hopeful to see you favorite youtube videographer make beta videos, it is not likely that they will be allowed.

 

@NaturallyMade Glad you finally cleared the dust. Now we won't have any posts bugging us about Beta and such.

 

This thread and LadyAijou's one settling Terraria comparisons should probably be stickied for quick reference; these questions are frequently wondered about.

 

Good post, now time to spread it to the whole community

 

Well this helps me out. Great post

 

Thanks for the info NaturallyMade. I've been wondering about a Beta.

 

I will probably more then likely rather wait for the full release, ahhhh. a bug free game right off. Is what i prefer. So whoever is gonna beta test the game, make us all proud.

 

I remember a dev saying that there won't be a NDA, but they will give the betatesters a very limited demo so the ability to leak it is reduced to a minimum. (aka if someone betrays them and leaks the beta, they can only leak a small demo.)

 

Still, i think there should be something to prevent them from releasing, since, whats the fun of being a beta tester, if everyone can test same as you do?
Anyways, I dont think anyone would do it public. Actually, people are selfish, and they prefer having things only for theirselves, since they think they make them cooler. And its probably true, since think of it, like all the IRC is constantly asking Marketh. Why? Because he haves info. And where theres info about a game, theres the people. (The exception is of course, the faqs, no one ever read thems, thats why they keep asking beta testers same questions entire day and night)

 

How do you prevent people from releasing? All signing an agreement does is make the company able to sue you, it doesnt prevent you from distributing the client.

You say that, but you forget that Terraria was leaked, even though they gave out the beta to a couple people. There is always one scumbag who squirrels their way in. Anyway I haven't seen people asking for marketh that much, most ask for tiy or something.

 

I'm pretty sure people won't want to be sued just so they can leak a game... if they do... They're pretty idiotic.

 

Well, just look at all the pirate servers who do it despite being under threat of sue. !
Some people don't care or are just that bold.