Private Beta

[Jekky]

note: this beta is only available to people who are already participating in the Early Access Program

We have decided to initially launch the beta as a Private Beta - this is because we are not certain about what sort of issues may arise, or how serious they may be, and we will be unable to provide patches over the holidays.

So, for the next couple of weeks, a private beta branch will be available. If you want to take part in this private beta, then please send us a message (here, or on the Slitherine forums) - you can make a post, reply to this post, or send a private message to myself (please don't send messages to other moderators, they may not be around to forward the message over christmas and new year).

If you are added to the beta here on steam, you will recieve an invite to the Private Beta group, where you can find instructions for joining the beta.

Some things to be aware of:

• There is a good chance of bugs/crashes/things not working right - if you don't want to deal with that, then wait for the more stable public beta
  
  
• We will be keeping this small - if a lot of people want to join the beta, we will only be accepting a few people at a time (and if there does prove to be serious issues affecting too many people we may stop accepting testers) - we will keep you up to date on this.
  
  
• There will be no patches for at least 3 weeks - though you are always free to switch back to 1.9 at any time.

With that stuff out of the way, we hope that a good number of you will volunteer for this beta - your support makes this game possible, and we look forward to getting some public feedback on the new version.

[Jonlissla]

Why not make it a public beta instead? People know what they they're getting into, and you'll avoid the hassle of replying to every single player. As you said, you can always revert to 1.9.

[DevildogFF]

I would like to join, please. Do I need to own the game?

I have a lot of experience with the game in the earlier beta, but I haven't bought it yet. Can I also test this version?

[Worlds2Explore]

I agree with Jonlissla. This is an early access title and everyone should already understand that there may be bugs/errors because the game is not officially released yet. Either way, I'm interested in participating in the beta.

[Jekky]

You do need to own the game to participate in this beta, yes.

We will move it to a public beta after new year if all goes well - we can't provide updates or patches until then anyway.

[Overread]

I'll throw my hand in and have a go with this. Sounds like a sound plan if you can't be at the office to work on patches over the holiday period. That said couldn't you release it as the normal optional beta feature on steam so that everyone could try it out and switch-back if they wish.

I know you can't get patches out; but at least it would mean potentailly more data to work with when you do return to the office so that the first patches can potentialy fix more.

I think the population of players is niche enough that people dropping into the forums with significant problems with the new version would easily be directed to roll-back and users have to opt-into beta releases anyway.

[Jekky]

What we don't want to happen, is for everyone who is waiting for the update to all rush to the beta branch at once - especially not if it turns out that there are issues which need to be dealt with.

[Jareck!]

Hey, I want to join the beta too.

[Overread]

A good point Jekky and certainly taking a cautious approach isn't bad - I've seen a few games have massive public backlash when in beta/alpha due to a build that had issues which needed fixing and when long periods without a fix. It's a concern that users, like myself, often don't worry about but certainly one a developer has to be aware of so its good to take steps to avoid such an eventuality.

[amandachen]

Me! Pick me!

[Sranchammer]

Count me in, please. I'd love the opportunity to look around and help

[guardianru]

have a game, and able to beta.

[PanzersEast]

Count me in.....

[Asher]

I'm willing to join

[Jonlissla]

Originally posted by Jekky:

especially not if it turns out that there are issues which need to be dealt with.

Then what's the point of Early Access? Isn't it our job as both consumers and investors to find bugs and issues and notify the developers to improve the product? I definately do not agree with a invite-based update.

[Overread]

Jon I believe the point is to avoid having the whole beta-testing membership playing in a beta version which might have a possibily high bug count over a 3 week (nearly a month) period where the developers are not on hand to issue new patches quickly. Especially considering its the holiday period so more gaming will likely take place.

I think they just want to avoid people going toxic because what DID work suddenly stops working when the developers are not in a position to reliably issue out patches to fix those issues. So they make it a request-feature to get in so that people getting in REALLY know the potential risk .