Was the Starbound in Pre-Alpha comment for real?

I'm beginning to wonder if some people here aren't delusional.

 

The whole "only one tier finished" thing is really a kick in the teeth

 

It shouldn't be, as most content is tier independent.

 

And now people are starting to wake up. Like i said before, the window is closing.

 

I also wonder that, but minutes ago in the Stream i did ask molly and she did repeat, bartwe said Pre-Alpha, not mentioned it was any slip of the tongue. Maybe the areas he needs to work are still on heavy development.

Yup, it's the same base but with special new stuff added each tier.

 

Even if they don't, I dunno why it matters...I have other games to play and things to do while I wait for Starbound.

 

I also believe far what they said the full release of this game is not likely anymore 2013, they aim for that but the pressure is on the beta this year, not the release.

 

Even if it's the beta, I still wouldn't care if they went over the 2013 release date.

 

I think many will be dissapointed from this slip of the tongue cause the Updates on the Frontpage suggest the state of the game is good progressed and now this.
I catch myself that i jumped pack and listen a second Time because i thougt i got missunderstand it. The Questin is now why they classyfied it as an Alpha or if real Pre-Alpha and where the Problems are.

I think an official Announce on the Frontpage from the DEFs for cooling down the Waves and the Community will a good Idea, or i will yet fear a messy Shitstorm in the Forum.

Personally i think it looks good enough 4 me for playing and having fun but im no Programmer so i got no Idea how difficult it may is

Greetings Crono

 

Honestly, I think they should delay both the release and the beta, and that they should avoid to give a date until they are 100% sure that the game is ready. The game isn't ready yet, and allowing beta access to what seems to be in reality an alpha, just to respect their promises, may be more detrimental to the game than a delay.

Though, I feel that they are in a lose-lose situation: if they allow beta access to a game which is, in fact, in alpha, it could lead to bad press, since the "beta" won't have the features that make Starbound different from its predecessors and rivals.
If they decide to delay the beta to 2014+, some people will call them out on their unkept promises, may ask refunds, and once again it will lead to bad press (and a loss of money which could be pretty bad if suddenly thousands of pre-orderers want their money back ~~ unlikely, but it's a very bad scenario that they will want to avoid at all cost).
As I see it, they are pretty much stuck with option A. Well, of course, a third option would be to release a true beta, with all the features that should be included in it (that is, all tiers and bosses ready, among other things), but I don't know if they could realistically pull it off in 3 months.

 

pre-alpha = tech demo. Right. Who EVER used that in such way in solid development please?

"Tech demo" is more of "prototype stage". Alpha version is COMPLETED product. As developer I usually say "hey, I've done all the list you wanted for this version, you can alpha test it, or wait a week for test package". Since Starbound is not completed, not even in the matter of features/balancing, it is not in alpha stage. It's still "under development" and what we see is "sneak peak".

 

Guys, do you not realize the game 'release' was promised in 2013. And now almost all of you are accepting that only the Beta will come in 2013. That's not good in any way. It sends a message to devs that they can fudge around all over us and people will eat it up and be happy. Hold them to their promise, that way at least they will try to make the 2013 release deadline.

 

*sigh* Not this again.
The only thing they promised, adamantly, was a beta release for 2013 (according to the Official "Threads about the release date of the beta" thread). I quote Tiy "If you preorder you'll get access to the beta this year." No mention of the release here. Aside from that, the release date is just "officialy 2013". On the pre-order page, the game's release is estimated for 2013. They can perfectly change the official release date, and they have to do it if the game isn't ready. A game which is bad at launch doesn't really send a good signal, they don't want to risk a commercial failure.

 

I believe your opinion on devs is lower, than they deserve. It is common in gaming industry to postpone the release and why shuold a small company be any different in that matter from some well-established giants?

 

They already said about the updates that they make progress like this for a long time, people just think they fact they work in minor things is that everything is completed, when the work is by stages, not everything at the same time.

Alpha version is no way a completed product, a BETA is. You are hugely misunderstanding that, Alphas are the features under development and implementation, then the Beta comes and it's about Fixing, Polish and the small things for release.

Promisse? OR a ETA? 2013 was promised to have the chance to play the game, after 2012, no concrete dates were announced, and 2013 as states in the Pre-Order page, refers 2013 as one Estimated Release date, and estimated dates almost always tend to change because a lot of unexpected stuff that may happen. As they said in the stream while ago "We can't announce dates because we don't feel secure about it, as one feature estimated to be done in 1 day, can take more than 1 week and then delay everything".

As soon we play in 2013, it's okay. :alien:

 

I would, but only because we'd get 70 bajilion threads saying how chucklefish are backstabbing, lying traitors.

 

I'm just going to add my grain of salt, as a developer too :

- Pre-Alpha : In thought stage. No coding done yet, We think what we want to have in our application / game.
- Alpha : Heavy development, features are being added. Bugs are expected and lightly being squished, but the focus is to implement the wanted features. Sometimes, tech-demos are given to the public to show how much the developing has progressed.
- Pre-Beta : Pretty optional, some give closed-beta access to their application/game. It is expected to have MOST features done and mostly but not strictly bug-free. It's often simply called Beta, not wrongly so, though.
- Beta : The application or game is feature-complete (for what is wanted for the first release). We now go on a bug-hunting spree, and the application/game is feature-frozen until release.
- Release : Like the Beta, but with 98% bugs fixed -- All those which have been detected during Beta.

After that, each patches goes into the same cycle, singularly.

 

From what I've seen on the subject, Starbound seems to have been developed as a whole rather than focusing on only the groundwork until that's finished then moving on to content, etc.

What that means is, there's likely to be a fairly short period from Alpha to Beta, and possibly to Release as well

Given that the entire game is built around making it easy to add items, creatures and features, adding new tiers shouldn't be all that difficult either. And for all we know they may be 90% done with tier 2, 3 and 4 by now. *shrug*

 

That would be too many [.cit]

 

You want to mince words then I'll go there. Their ETA of 2013 could be called a promise according to definition. Google Promise: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.

So yes, 2013 was an assurance/declaration they will release in 2013. Technically and by definition, a promise.