Stars Beyond Reach Beta Approaches! Have some screenshots. :)

[kasnavada]

 

I followed you and your games for a few years and I spammed you enough to get my name mentioned in the AI war patch notes  Which is a great habit by the way ! And yes, I look forward to trying my best to do so again if you would have me in the beta !

[crazyroosterman]

can somebody tell me what day it is in America(which is were I assume arcen are running this forum from) over here on the isle of man its Tuesday and I'm not being shouted at to start testing.

[tbrass]

can somebody tell me what day it is in America(which is were I assume arcen are running this forum from) over here on the isle of man its Tuesday and I'm not being shouted at to start testing.

Tuesday ;-) About noon, where the Arcen folks hang out.

[ptarth]

You can tell because of how much stress Chris is in right now. Can't you hear the weeping and teeth gnashing from where you are?

[Misery]

You can tell because of how much stress Chris is in right now. Can't you hear the weeping and teeth gnashing from where you are?

I was going to say "come now, surely it cant be THAT bad/stressful", but then I actually thought about it, and.... yeah, I wont say that, then.

[tbrass]

I suspect he's actually relaxing with beer and brisket. On a beach. On turn 10,592. And a bit concerned that this is several thousand more turns than anticipated.

But at least he has the beer. And the brisket. And the sound of the water is soothing.

[ptarth]

I'm imagining him sitting at the edge of the abyss staring into the darkness chanting, "Why won't it compile? It compiled fine just 10 minutes ago and I didn't change anything."

[Captain Jack]

I'm imagining him sitting at the edge of the abyss staring into the darkness chanting, "Why won't it compile? It compiled fine just 10 minutes ago and I didn't change anything."

My recommendation: start doing something productive. You either get something done until the beta comes out, or you come back to find the beta is waiting for you.

[Misery]

I'm imagining him sitting at the edge of the abyss staring into the darkness chanting, "Why won't it compile? It compiled fine just 10 minutes ago and I didn't change anything."

My recommendation: start doing something productive. You either get something done until the beta comes out, or you come back to find the beta is waiting for you.

Well that's certainly how I"ve always felt about it, hah.

And is it awesome or really sad that I know *exactly* where the art on the left of that comes from?  Possibly a little of both... more of the sad, likely.

[Draco18s]

And is it awesome or really sad that I know *exactly* where the art on the left of that comes from?  Possibly a little of both... more of the sad, likely.

*Googly*
Ah, of course.  Makes sense.  Highly appropriate use of the image and its meme derivative.
(I'm too young)

[Utrick]

I'd love to beta test Stars Beyond Reach! Either as a blueshirt or as "other guys". I've actually been following Arcen since AI War was released and enjoy every single one of your games, just lurked on the forums

[Cyborg]

I'm imagining him sitting at the edge of the abyss staring into the darkness chanting, "Why won't it compile? It compiled fine just 10 minutes ago and I didn't change anything."

Having been there before:
* In complex systems with multiple remote servers, password expiry can happen at any moment.
* Permission problem on *nix
* Denial


… But yeah, usually it's denial.

[x4000]

Sorry for my super slow responses!  I've been so sucked in with the first wave of testers that I've not had time to do much else.  With the release date pushed back to allow for more refinement, I'm also taking the waves of testers a bit slower, at least particularly at first, so that the biggest issues of each "wave" get resolved prior to the next wave coming in.  With this first wave of redshirts, of course that list of issues is... well, pretty massive, given the scale of the game.  But that list is getting smaller by the day, and we're hitting a point where new testers will be useful within the next week.

The really gratifying thing for me has been seeing that despite all of the expected carnage of confusion and bugs for the redshirts, that they were still really enjoying it / hypnotized by it.  So that's a really exciting thing for me personally, because it speaks to what the game will hopefully be for people once it's actually properly fully polished!

How does one get on the beta list for this game?
(I think I got every game made by Arcen Games)

Added you to the list for upcoming waves!

Looks pretty cool so far. I tend to enjoy games like civilization or simcity, and Id be happy to be included in the beta.

And you!

As anticipated the game looks great! There's very little I love more than a great 4x. Would love to be added to beta list! Thanks!

And you!

A few weeks ago, I had asked to possibly be added to the beta list in another post. I'm not sure you responded Chris, and I couldn't find the post. That's my round about way of seeing if I could be put on that list, if I'm not already, and if you're still adding people. Either way, this game looks amazing and I can't wait to play it sooner or later.

You're on there now -- sorry about the lack of response there before, it's definitely nothing personal!  I've just been absolutely inundated.  This looks like your first post, so I'm wondering if you used a different name before?  Anyway, I have you on there under this forum handle now.  Cheers!

I followed you and your games for a few years and I spammed you enough to get my name mentioned in the AI war patch notes  Which is a great habit by the way ! And yes, I look forward to trying my best to do so again if you would have me in the beta !

Added you to the list!

You can tell because of how much stress Chris is in right now. Can't you hear the weeping and teeth gnashing from where you are?

I'm more of a teeth grinder, really.

I was going to say "come now, surely it cant be THAT bad/stressful", but then I actually thought about it, and.... yeah, I wont say that, then.

Inviting in the very first wave of testers is one of the most stressful things that I do in my life, honestly.  I have no idea what to expect in terms of their reactions, and it marks the start of a flood of feedback which is largely going to be negative by its very nature.  Not that it's done in a negative way, it's always actually super positive criticism, but it's just something I have to kind of mentally brace for.  Once I'm actually IN that process, it's fun and I love it.  But it's like getting ready to jump into cold water at the first there, heh.

I'd love to beta test Stars Beyond Reach! Either as a blueshirt or as "other guys". I've actually been following Arcen since AI War was released and enjoy every single one of your games, just lurked on the forums

Thanks for the kind words!  I've added you to the list, and have you marked as a blueshirt.

[Pumpkin]

Inviting in the very first wave of testers is one of the most stressful things that I do in my life, honestly.  I have no idea what to expect in terms of their reactions, and it marks the start of a flood of feedback which is largely going to be negative by its very nature.  Not that it's done in a negative way, it's always actually super positive criticism, but it's just something I have to kind of mentally brace for.  Once I'm actually IN that process, it's fun and I love it.  But it's like getting ready to jump into cold water at the first there, heh.

Jesse Schell said in his book (French version translated on the fly from memory) that inviting people to test his games was like sending a postcard written "you are invited to come and tell me how bad is my game".

[x4000]

Something along those lines.  I'd say it's more along the lines of "you're invited to come tell me how bad I am at my job, and how much time and money I've wasted over the last near-year."  There's a real undercurrent of fear there until there's a certain number of other people who feel like the game has actual merit after having played it (as opposed to being hyped for something they've not played yet, which actually makes the undercurrent of fear worse). 

They don't have to think it's perfect, and actually having problems to immediately jump on is a relief to me -- when things go too smoothly in life, I get REALLY suspicious.  But if they believe in it enough to still retain some excitement and to want to see how it evolves, then that starts settling me down.  A couple of weeks in and I'm generally in a very different place.  Thankfully I think I'm pretty much there now.