Alpha <rant>

[Lohan2008]

WTF is with all these game developers selling "Alpha" and "pre-alpha" games via steam ?

Why should I have to pay to help someone else make a profit ???

Does no one understand that there is no such term as alpha ?

Beta development only applies to a game that has been coded and then given to others to test for 'bugs'.

<rant continues>

Why do we still use the term bugs when the term originated during the ancient time of vacuum tubes, when insects would be attracted to the lights and get fried.

or the term "log in" when only places with secure rooms requiring physical records would use a log book (ask your grandparents).

[Flymetothemun]

Why should I have to pay to help someone else make a profit ???

Answered your question yourself. My personal theory on Alpha/Pre-alpha is so that the developers don't have to have a massive testing team, they just have a few in-house and they let their buyers be a free test team. I'm sick of Alphas/Pre-Alphas as well. It's one thing to have a complete game and have patches for it be released every few months, but it's another thing to have an incomplete game slowly get built. I like to use the metaphor of a house, it's one thing to have a finished house and have the siding or roof repaired or have an addition built onto it every once in a while, but it's another things to have a wooden frame having thing added onto it to become a house.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Flymetothemun
Grammar/Clarifications

[Sirrobert]

Some people like to watch a game they love grow and be a part of it. Those are the people that buy alpha/beta games.

It's basicly a pre purches that you can play right away with bugs, rather than buy now and get it later.

And than there are those that don't like to do these kind of things, that don't like alpha/beta games. Well, why the hell are you even here if you don't? Noone's making you buy an alpha or beta.

If you don't want to do alpha/beta games, than just wait it out until the game is complete. There will be no difference to you between that, or the game not having an early acces version. Except that the games with early acces will probably have less bugs, since there is a way bigger group testing and flushing out bugs

[Seret]

Does no one understand that there is no such term as alpha ?

Beta development only applies to a game that has been coded and then given to others to test for 'bugs'.

There's no official definition of the terms, but I think the general understanding of alpha vs beta is that an alpha is not feature complete, whereas a beta should be. Betas should be essentially the finished game, but in need of testing, bugfixes and balancing. An alpha like KSP is still under heavy development.

[ZedNova]

Some of these indie devs are single man teams and would like to expand and get professionals to do their Music, artwork or other stuff like that, this can't happen if you have a job and a family to take care of. Alpha funding basically allows them to quit their job and focus on the game and that alone.

For Indie studios this is the same, they don't have a ton of money to start out with, and they need to promote interest in the game, get people to test for bugs on multiple platforms bugs, and pay the rent while they do this. Large game developers such as EA, Nintendo, or Sony don't need to Alpha fund because they've made so much money on previous games and other markets.

I personally love Alpha funded games, i get to see it progress and change with my input sometimes helping change it. Many of these games such as Kerbal space program, Rust, Prison architect, Rimworld ect. Wouldn't exist without alpha funding.

Because Major game developers rarely risk stepping out of a highly successful franchise and take a risk doing sometime new, a game like KSP might not happen, or at least not be anywhere near the same.