Not everyone here works in software development or even follows other games much but I would be really interested to know how ED's development works. Judging by the "is it a scam" thread, there are people who share that curiosity and people that have a fairly good idea of how these things are or will be.
1. Alpha 1 to Alpha 2 took something like six weeks. Is it fair to estimate that sort of time, give or take a fortnight, per stage assuming things don't go too badly? How long or short can those metaphorical pieces of string be?
2. Will the Premium Beta be a largely complete game, just with a number of features to implement?
3. What sort of differences would you expect there to be between the two stages of the Beta? Is the Standard just a more stable build with fewer features left to polish off?
4. What determines completion of stage? Is it reaching a point where the bugs are fixed or is it more driven by reaching a stage where the next planned release looks like it works?
5. Would there be today, deep on David Braben's laptop (hypothetically - substitute a secure place as appropriate) something that resembles a full game, albeit not fit for human consumption? What I mean is do you develop a game by making parts that work and then stitch it together at the last minute, or after a certain stage does everything need to be developed as part of a whole?
6. Is the Gamma release really a chance to kill the last few bugs and tweak the balance so it plays "just so"?
7. Do the future developments like planetary landings stay completely on the back-burner until the Gamma is hunkydory?
Hmmm, it didn't feel like I had that many questions when I started the list. Any illumination would be appreciated.
1. Alpha 1 to Alpha 2 took something like six weeks. Is it fair to estimate that sort of time, give or take a fortnight, per stage assuming things don't go too badly? How long or short can those metaphorical pieces of string be?
2. Will the Premium Beta be a largely complete game, just with a number of features to implement?
3. What sort of differences would you expect there to be between the two stages of the Beta? Is the Standard just a more stable build with fewer features left to polish off?
4. What determines completion of stage? Is it reaching a point where the bugs are fixed or is it more driven by reaching a stage where the next planned release looks like it works?
5. Would there be today, deep on David Braben's laptop (hypothetically - substitute a secure place as appropriate) something that resembles a full game, albeit not fit for human consumption? What I mean is do you develop a game by making parts that work and then stitch it together at the last minute, or after a certain stage does everything need to be developed as part of a whole?
6. Is the Gamma release really a chance to kill the last few bugs and tweak the balance so it plays "just so"?
7. Do the future developments like planetary landings stay completely on the back-burner until the Gamma is hunkydory?
Hmmm, it didn't feel like I had that many questions when I started the list. Any illumination would be appreciated.