What stage is KSP at?

[Dimetime35c]

Okay I'm kinda confused here what stage is KSP in? Is it a late Alpha? Or is it a mid to late Beta? I'm kinda confused as to what area KSP falls under. Also will this game ever truly be done or will it stay like minecraft constantly updating and getting new features?

[angrysheep]

I think it's in alpha

[regex]

Sandbox complete.

[The Jedi Master]

Mid alpha. Don't expect beta until next year.

[Moon Goddess]

Okay I'm kinda confused here what stage is KSP in? Is it a late Alpha? Or is it a mid to late Beta? I'm kinda confused as to what area KSP falls under. Also will this game ever truly be done or will it stay like minecraft constantly updating and getting new features?

Ok, well it's definitely not Beta, the devs list it as Alpha,

As for anything else it's all conjecture, but I believe it to be in mid-Alpha, and I do not believe they will keep adding things forever, I suspect it will be finished at some point and they will work on some sort of expansion. maybe after they've done some other game entirely.

[Epthelyn]

Alpha, apparently, although:

Alpha: Alpha testing is simulated or actual operational testing by potential users/customers or an independent test team at the developers' site. Alpha testing is often employed for off-the-shelf software as a form of internal acceptance testing, before the software goes to beta testing.

Beta: Beta testing comes after alpha testing and can be considered a form of external user acceptance testing. Versions of the software, known as beta versions, are released to a limited audience outside of the programming team. The software is released to groups of people so that further testing can ensure the product has few faults or bugs. Sometimes, beta versions are made available to the open public to increase the feedback field to a maximal number of future users.

It's probably more like beta testing now, given how the game has been distributed to the public and players report back on bugs and faults they find.

Those definitions are becoming more and more blurred as time passes

[3_bit]

According to Wikipedia, we're still in early Alpha, as Beta, according to them, is when all the remaining bugs get ironed out and last touches/features added. Seeing as how these last few updates have been quite major, I think we are definitely still within Alpha, seeing as how Resources and Career Mode and YOU-KNOW-WHAT(multiplayer) have yet to be added, not to mention several other things.

[blackfire83]

Honestly, these terms hardly apply to this game, or the trend, in general, of 'releasing' a game before it's done. In fact, the word 'release' probably doesn't apply either!

To more accurately contribute to the discussion, I was always under the assumption that in Beta, a game was considered more or less "feature complete", meaning they're only ironing things out, not adding whole new features. KSP is clearly an alpha, by that standard.

[zarakon]

Generally "beta" means feature-complete, just polishing and fixing bugs.

But in an open development scheme like this, I don't think either term really applies.

[borisvolodnikov]

When you're developing using an Agile development methodology, these sorts of lines become blurred. It's not apparent that there is a fixed feature set (scope) or a fixed schedule constraining development. In short, I think they'll just keep adding stuff until they or the community loses interest.

[AlamoVampire]

Yup alpha but so much fun!!!

[KevinTMC]

Sandbox complete.

I've seen where Squad says that; but it doesn't seem quite right. Wouldn't that imply that nothing further is to be added to sandbox mode? (Not even the science parts they're working on right this minute, or better aerodynamics?)

[Marcuzzi]

Now that there's talk about the Alpha and Beta stage of KSP, can we all agree and push the movement to stop complaining so damn much about the bugs/ faults to this game?

I think the real question is when and how did KSP start?

It seems to me like they created a game to a point at which they could "play" it and achieve orbit. Then to see if they should stick with developing the game or scrap it with the idea that it might not have a good enough following, they released what they had to the public. After some time and a few updates the following of KSP grew faster than the development, which leaves them at a point to where the public demands more but the actual time needed to develop the game has narrowed. This would leave them at a point to where they need to hire on new staff (aka the hiring of modders) to speed production to meet demand. Also with the fact that the solar system of the game and numerous mods which open an entirely new directions to the game could altar how the Dev's actually want their end product to be. Now pile on a community full of KSP'ers that bash and complain about the flaws seemingly whenever they get a chance to that putting out an update that doesn't revolutionize the game in some major way would be viewed as a failed update. Well damn, all that time and effort put into devloping lasted about 10 minutes because the revert still screwed with your ship the second time you tried to launch it.

Then again who am I to voice an opinion, I've never spoken to a Dev.

I'd suggest you live KSP like you should live your life, enjoying the moment.

-End Mini Rant-

[LostElement]

KSP may be in alpha, but it's friggin fun as crap! I can wait.

[Dasemay]

i saw this in a article about ksp "the KSP team doesn't consider their game to be in alpha or beta. Instead, each update goes through an alpha and beta cycle before being released. The game is designed to be living and evolving, and the .22 update is evidence of significant growth and maturity."

hers the full thing: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/kerbal_space_program/b/pc/archive/2013/09/01/the-story-of-kerbal-space-program.aspx

[Dangerous_Beans]

It's clearly at the beginning of the second stage, just after the first lot of boosters are dropped, and just before a vital strut fails and the entire thing explodes

[Randox]

I would consider the alpha to be done when they stop adding new features, and stick entirely to overhauling the current ones and bug fixes. As for how far through the alpha stage we are, I'm not sure even Harvester knows (unless he has a time machine stashed in his office), since no one knows what the final feature list will look like. I think the base game is, at least superficially, almost complete. Off the top of my head, resources are probably the last major base game piece still missing, and I'm sure people will be happy to remind me of all the wonderful things I just glazed over.

I say superficially because there are things in the game right now that are only placeholders, like the aerodynamics system. I'm also sure there will be other things like the SAS that were perhaps considered done at some point, and Squad will ultimately go back and do again.

Once all that is done, there is still the campaign system to do, and I figure that we are close to that partly because it seems they have really started to lay the groundwork for it, as well as doing features that would be useful for it (like the test flights). Once the campaign is in the game will probably mark the beta stage.

[stupid_chris]

The game is indeed still in alpha stage. However it's an open alpha, meaning than you can have access to the game through it's development.

Although the lines have been blurred indeed in the past year, and that the notion of alpha and beta stage are sort of getting off road, an alpha stage can be considered as the "creating" portion of the game where content and features are being added to the game. The beta stage is normally where you have a near complete game that you polish out and add final touches to.

So yes, we're still pretty much in an alpha stage. The reason the game already looks polished is because since it's an open alpha, the developers are taking some time as it goes to do a bit of polishing for us to have a nicer game to play

[llamatoes]

Like Chris said, alpha will most probably continue until we have decent aerodynamics, updated spaceplane parts, resources and a barebones career mode.

Unlike minecraft which has been going along with the debs just adding stuff, and minecraft balances like a drunk man on a large medicene ball.

[Whackjob]

√-1

/10chars

// or √-1 chars?

[lazarus1024]

Its blurred, but I'd call it Alpha still and I believe that is what SQUAD is going with as well.

As for adding features. DamnedifIknow how long it'll take before they are "done" and they move to Beta.

I also dispute that Sandbox is complete. SQUAD has mentioned several pretty major additions that would flush out sandbox more. Resources being one of them. I think there is also going to be a focus on Station and Base modules and stuff IIRC. Also at least one or more planets to be added. Rumors of late in development they may add FTL and/or another/more star systems, but I think that one is more musing on the subject than a "we deffinitely want to do that".

Resources, in SOME form, are pretty much a go. It is just a matter of when they will add them and what form. They were originally going to do it for .20, but backed off when they realized it would take massive work, and career was basically unstarted. So they decided to go back to the drawing board and wanted to go with development work that added the most "new" to the game with the "least" development effort. IE add things that don't exist at all first, then improve and iterate.

Career being the biggest thing missing.

So we got the Kerbal knowledge base and a bunch of other tweaks. Now we are getting research and tech development so that Career can finally be introduced. Next is probably going to be a system for "money" to have a funding method in Career mode. After that...dunno, SQUAD might have ideas. Actual missions you can elect to do within Career to give it more direction? Working on the Astronaut training/recruiting more? Go back to introducing resources for Sandbox and possibly Career as well? Flushing out existing features like real re-entry heat?

I'd imagine at their current release cadence and based on what they have said they want to do, I think we are going to be in "Alpha" for at least another 9-12 months and 5-8 more releases before it is relatively feature complete. Then I suspect we'll probably have a good 6-9 month Beta where they flesh out a few features a little, tweak some stuff and go on a bug hunt before they consider it "final" and then maybe start working on major expansions.

The major expansions might be when they look at introducing FTL and other star systems. They might also leave a major expansion to include "future tech" along the lines of FTL and advanced space flight (IE like a 2100KE KSP [Kerbal Era] add on pack or something) with plasma drives, fusion power plants, Bussard ramjets, etc.

[dudester28]

KSP has been in development for a real long time I have noticed. I think it's in alpha or beta.

[Levelord]

To keep things simple, Alpha usually means that the game is in a stage where it is still receiving new features (like new rocket parts, science trees, new planets etc etc).

In the beta stage, the game doesn't receive any new parts or changes (it's been finalized), but it's put forwards for bug cleaning and general optimizations.

[dudester28]

To keep things simple, Alpha usually means that the game is in a stage where it is still receiving new features (like new rocket parts, science trees, new planets etc etc).

In the beta stage, the game doesn't receive any new parts or changes (it's been finalized), but it's put forwards for bug cleaning and general optimizations.

I would agree with what you're saying but when Minecraft was in beta, it was still receiving (fairly large) changes. More so near the end of the beta.

[Levelord]

I would agree with what you're saying but when Minecraft was in beta, it was still receiving (fairly large) changes. More so near the end of the beta.

Notch isn't a professional programmer that is aware or follows the terminology the industry uses. Remember that Minecraft started out as a side project that he originally wanted to throw away, but gained an unexpected following. The development process of Minecraft had little structure and was disorganized. Not his fault, he was just an amateur programmer at the time who was thrust into the corporate gaming industry.