No need for payment to be in the alpha -- the game is our thank-you to people who come and actually give us feedback.
Go ahead and PM tigersfan (Josh) if you want to be in a later round of the alpha. We don't take everyone in the earliest rounds particularly because we want first impressions that are fresh after we make various improvements from the earlier rounds.
It will probably be around half a week before we start another round, if not slightly more, depending on how the feedback keeps coming from the first wave of testers. I want this to be a much more first-impression-accessible game before we get the next round of folks in, as the difficulty is currently much too high for most new players, and a number of things are not explained well enough.
But definitely go ahead and get yourself on the list if you want to. Thanks!
Chris