Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Alpha, Beta, and Release – Indie Definitions

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 2, 2011

The testing phases of alpha and beta mean different things to different publishers and studios, especially when it comes to games. The terms originate from the hardware industry. As I understand it, alpha testing was component testing, where the individual pieces were rigorously tested for integrity and function. Beta testing was effectively integration testing, when all the pieces were put together into a whole product (or prototype). But in software – especially with non-waterfall development methodologies – the definitions become increasingly fuzzy.  Code complete vs. content complete? Internal vs. external? What about continuous testing?

So may I recommend the following definitions, which seems to have large applicability among commercial indie game developers:

Alpha: Too embarrassed to show it to any but testers.

Beta: Too embarrassed to charge for it yet.

Release: Still embarrassed but need revenue!


Filed Under: Production - Comments: 6 Comments to Read



  • (name_here) said,

    I think the current industry standard is

    -Alpha: Content incomplete, suggestions inspired by testing can be added
    -Beta: Content is finalized unless it turns out to have unfixable bugs. Mainly bugtesting.

  • Whiner said,

    For Magical Diary, the alpha is playable up to a point but the game is very clearly not complete, and I won’t call it beta until you can actually reach the end of the game.

    Although since I don’t have to deal with retail pressing deadlines, new content can get thrown in any old time.

  • Rampant Coyote said,

    Yeah, online distribution and the value of frequent updates (including content additions, not just fixes) really do help change the playing field. You aren’t just manufacturing a product and forgetting about it anymore.

  • anon said,

    You’re doing it wrong.

    Alpha: start taking preorders.
    Beta: sell a million copies.
    Release: world domination.

  • Tormod Haugen said,

    Seems to me that:

    Alpha: Internal testing
    Beta: Pay us early to play the unfinished version
    Release: Pay us now to play the (still) unfinished version
    Patch #2 + Hotfix #3: Playable

  • Tormod Haugen said,

    Oh, sorry. That definition was for Triple-A products.

    My bad. :/

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