What IS the Software Development Cycle, exactly?

Obviously the devs get the deciding vote on this, but looking at the daily updates a lot of the stuff they are adding seems pretty pre-alpha to me.
Then again I think this alpha-beta-release development cycle is pretty outdated. Back in 'ye old days, Alpha and beta testing had to be a lot more vigorous because they couldn't patch games after release. Now (paid) open beta is nearly identical to post release.

What does it matter anyway, the game isn't out yet. Even if it is in alpha, that could last a month or a year, it isn't directly relevant to the release date.

 

Adding hunger and experience, for example. They significantly changed how survival mode worked.

I felt like it might be helpful to inform people about what these terms are actually supposed to mean.

The only reason I posted a new thread was because this didn't really belong in the release date thread.

 

I still think they are in Phase Potato.

 

I'm pretty sure they moved on to Strawberry Fields Phase.

Unfortunately, it seems like they might be in Strawberry Fields Forever.
Of course, it's nothing to get hung about.

 

I don't know how but I understood the reference.

 

Maybe because this is Starbound, and we all want to travel Across the Universe.

 

Nice to have a summarization like this, presented well and covering many questions. It's topics like this that up the standards of the forums. Keep it up.

I'll be quoting this topic and linking to it in the upcoming edition of Vector Squared, if that's ok with you?

 

Go for it. I mostly posted it because it seemed like there has been a lot of confusion about it.

As others have mentioned in this thread, the confusion is in no small part due to Indie developers deviating from the typical development process with things like perpetual betas that never seem to end, like Minecraft, Don't Starve, etc... Even so, there does seem to be a general sort of method to the madness. I hope that the thread helps put some minds at ease with regards to the progress of the game, especially that each phase is usually shorter than the previous ones.

 

There. We've added a mini-article in about the whole ordeal, linking people to your topic. Hopefully this'll clear up a lot of the "ERMAHGERD ITS PRE ALPHA" topics. Good job! :whistle:

 

This new issue will be interesting with all the on forum drama. thankfully people at i49 did not feel the same.

 

We've been working heavily on it, and as far as I know, it's our largest issue to date. Nice to hear people are looking forward to it!

 

Starbound will have versions up to Omega.

 

as long as Bate is out before Omaga ill he happy `

 

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Dseta, Eta, Theta, Lota, Kappa, Lamba, Mi, Ni, Xi, Omicron, Pi, RHO, Sigma, Tau, Ipsilion, Fi, Ji, Psi and Omega.

 

Each stage can be different to each team. I've played plenty of betas that weren't feature complete. I remember the World of Warcraft beta had plenty of areas that weren't open, and if you tried to get into them, giant constructs would zap you to death outside the gate.

 

"Those terms are used loosely at best."
I'm afraid not. These terms have proper, quantifiable definitions.
When people use them loosely it causes confusion like we have seen on the forums. Usually the terms are loose when the software is in a state of transition from one dev phase to another (moving from pre-alpha to alpha or alpha to pre-beta etc).
If the terms were meant to be loose then Bartwe wouldnt have tried to correct Molly under stress, and Tiy then wouldn't have gone on to correct Bartwe.

Gmail is a poor example, it was 90% feature complete during the whole beta process. The length of time a program is in beta for doesnt matter.

Look at a complex piece of software like windows. Windows used to be developed for 4 years, and the only time you got your hands on it if you are lucky is a release candidate (Windows VX.X RC). This is post-beta. The public dont even see the beta, except in promo vids.
You think windows is a poor example to compare a game to? Sure. What about 99.99% of AAA games then? You dont get your hands on that software until its done!

---

Anyway... more on Indies and the dev cycle below:

Indie and Open Source developers have for a long time had a reputation for releasing alpha stage builds of software for public use, mostly to help gauge how much interest the software will gather.
Lately, however, the Indie games market has had a bit of a paradigm shift. The "App Revolution" (as I am loathe to call it) has raised the public's expectation of even really cheap software ($2~$15) significantly.
This shift has meant that devs now need to produce really high quality software (read: games, mostly) before public release.
Meaning that ultimately the software tends to be much farther along the dev cycle before surfacing. i.e Beta

This is why a AAA studio (for example), wont even title a project until it is in beta.
Possibly for Rockstar Studios: In the financial reports they will say, "An untitled sequel, 2017", during alpha. When the game reaches beta point they title it "GTA VI" (so they can start the marketing machine, and because at beta you can accurately slate a release date). When its in alpha they dont even want the world to know it exists, yet.

Which is why Chucklefish are in an "catch-22" situation. The game is alpha, yet it has a huge community following (which is great). They have, however, been sort of forced to peg a release date on the software (even though its in alpha), by a community (that very much seems) to largely not understand what the implications for a piece of software being in alpha are, like a fluid time schedule.
Which would be sovled by releasing the alpha, but in this first-impressions-are-everything "App Revolution" world, your product pretty much needs to be at beta quality by release (or open-source), or face poor public reviews, and even worse, poor word-of-mouth reviews.

This is solved by many Indie studios by releasing the alpha (and possibly/not mislabeling it "beta"), or following the more traditional AAA approach and only announcing the game after beta has begun. Thus a catch-22. They can't put the cat back in the bag, nor is it ready for release.

tl;dr:

 

Dunno what Greek alphabet you learnt at school...
This is the one I learnt:

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, rho ,Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, phi, chi, Psi and Omega.
or rather:
Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ and Ω

 

Yeah is the one i learnt, just some typos Still Rho is there!

 

... I really should have written a similar thread myself a few days ago. Though, now that things have settled a bit, it's probably better.
Kudos Luvdisc. Very well done.

 

All we need is a spaceship which looks like a yellow submarine.