Regarding Release & Beta, What You Should Know.

an open beta makes more sense from a minecraft success, to a PR and sales perspective ( though in the final stages once the game is mostly polished) fanbois will argue with my as to the existing line and thats fine, all options can be changed with tiy going yes lets do it this way so keep the discussion open and try less to flame those presenting the alternative viewpoint

 

I do agree with you, a closed beta is more likely but it may not be more helpful to the game. As you stated, if they are trying to go in a certain direction then yes a closed beta where they can control the type and amount of feedback they get would be better, but on the other hand if they are just looking to fix general bugs and stuff that is a common occurence then thats where the open beta is definately going to help out more. Im not arguing that they should do an open beta persay, but i am arguing that an open beta would probably be more beneficial at this point if they want it out by the end of summer, UNLESS during their current builds there is something specific that they are looking to correct that has been happening with each of their builds thus far. But either way before the game comes out just so they can do hot fixes on as many bugs as they can it should have 1 or 2 open beta weekends, where everyone can play and contribute to making the game more enjoyable and bug/glitch free.

 

How many people would estimate them having for the closed beta if ther is one?

 

8.43 would be my estimate.

 

Reading back a tiny bit from the last few posts, I've become engaged in a good healthy conversation between two intelligent folks who, though clearly have differing opinions, state their thoughts elegantly, concisely and with merit. However, did I miss a possible suggestion of an initial closed beta and then the possibility of an open beta not being completely poo-pood by the devs? There is no fixed number when it comes to a closed beta; hell, they may have 50 folks already somewhat in-mind and we don't know of it... becaused it's a hush-hushprivatesecret007 directive. All I know is that both forms of testing hold value, and are valuable in their own way. And, there's no reason that either needs to be limited at this time in the development process... things change fast.

Speculation is a funny thing, you're never completely right... many times the loop is "over there" and we're standing somewhere out of it

 

You're right with regards to the fact that we have no idea what the devs are thinking, and they are free to change their minds anytime. Tiy has stated that he doesn't want to have an open beta though, and would prefer to have a closed beta and then a full release later summer of a relatively complete and bug-free game. That's not to say that this wouldn't change but that's probably what we should be expecting to happen. I think they want a small dedicated team of people that will actually actively seek out and report bugs, rather than a much larger, but less dedicated player base that basically just want the game early.

 

Yay for civil discourse and conversation!

And while a closed beta followed by an open beta would be an ideal process, there are other factors to consider, such as time and resources. Even one of those methods is a sizeable undertaking, and the company is a relatively small one. Coupled with the fact that they're aiming for a summer release this year, I'm just not sure how feasible it would be for them to organize both a closed beta and an open beta.

At the end of the day, though, you're right in that all this is speculation. No one here is a developer for the game, so we really have no way of knowing which point is more or less valid.

The main thing that matters, though, is that this game will be awesome. =o

 

Amen to that.

 

I'm glad someone still holds that belief, thank you Maverik

 

im just glad that starbound is far enough along to start thinking about having a beta =].
also i would love to have the beta, though i don't know how likely it will be.
i don't care if i have it and its before the beta lol

 

I think that if here is a closed beta they should have at least around 20 people that are dedicated to finding bugs because there is only so many bugs a 'small dedicated group' can go find and report in a possibly infinite universe with so much content before enItial release.

 

I'd be open for Beta testing, as I'm naturally one of those people who enjoys giving feedback and pushing limits with what I can/can't do. Plus, I'm quite particular and happily obsessive about detail (I'm a fine artist, and my paintings take me forEVAR as I have to make sure it's just perfect).

That being said, there's something wonderful about loading a game for the first time, it being all sparkly and new, and being surprised by each and every new thing you come across. You get a bit more of the Awe factor when you don't beta-test. And, as I'm relatively new and really have no chance in pergatory of testing, I'm totally alright with it.

 

oh yea i know what you mean

 

A closed beta is prob soon at hand. But if they want the most bug free game they can make, an open beta would be feasible for that. Now when i say open beta i dont mean ok heres the entire game have it and report bugs if you find them. By open beta i mean, they give us a sample of the game for the weekend, starting on a friday at midnight, and ending sunday at midnight. People that want to contribute will have the ability to do so for a weekend. Then after the weekend they take the next few weeks to sort through the feedback they got and fix what ever they can.

If they did that for maybe 2 or 3 weekends before the game is released, the game will definately be so much better. While again there is no garuntee that they will get alot of useful feedback, there is a greater chance to find all the bugs in an open beta rather than in a closed beta if any size.

 

A closed beta is better for finding bugs really though, if you have a more dedicated team of people working hard to actually test every possible aspect they can for bugs and glitches over a longer period of time. A lot of people for an open beta would just play it for the game, and maybe stumble across some bugs along the way (still useful, just not quite the same dedication).

Open betas are extremely useful for testing it on a massive range of different hardware though, as they likely have only played it on a very small range of different computers and so they probably aren't prepared for some of the weird problems that can appear out of nowhere on some peoples computers.

That said it's likely they're just gonna stick to a closed beta as they've said before, but we'll have to see I guess.

 

Sweet more news!

 

a beta would be awesome!

 

Sadly, they are now aiming for an end of the year release, or so I've heard.

 

I posted this in another forum when I saw a conversation regarding release, and this is something that Tiy said the other day during a chat in the IRC:

[13:58] <omgbradley> Tiy: Can we get anything more specific than "late summer" to tell the people?
[13:59] <@Tiy> omgbradley end of the year

 

Not really a bad thing, since they will have more time to perfect the game.
An early release can ruin a game, you know.