By Jim Rossignol on August 11th, 2011 at 9:27 am.
Chris Hecker has posted over on the SpyParty blog to explain his early-access beta pricing for the game of spy-spotting. “$15 gets you access to the beta SpyParty and all the updates during the beta, access to the private beta website, which includes forums for announcements, finding games, and discussing strategies, and eventually a bug/feature tracking system,” says Hecker. He’s also allow the truly excited to pay more on top of that if they really want to support the project.
Hecker also confirms that he’ll probably miss the “mid-June” launch date for this beta, but he’s busy working ahead on it anyway, and there should be more news soon.
11/08/2011 at 09:50 Rancorist says:
LOL so keen.
11/08/2011 at 09:52 Commander Gun says:
Together with Frozen Synapse, which hasn’t disappointed me at at all, this is the indie game i was looking forward too the most this year, so i’m happy to finally try this in beta!
11/08/2011 at 09:55 12kill4 says:
That sounds like the beta-access fee doesn’t actually give you a copy of the final release, only updates within the beta phase. Is this the case?
11/08/2011 at 09:59 Scythe says:
One would assume that buying in at this stage would give you access to the full version when it came out. Otherwise would be madness.
11/08/2011 at 10:07 Ross says:
If you go into the press release you’ll see:
“You’ll also get the game for free when it releases on PC”
11/08/2011 at 09:56 Orija says:
Why should anyone pay for testing out bugs for him?
11/08/2011 at 09:58 JackShandy says:
Ask notch. Oh wait, you can’t, because his impenetrable self-perpetuating money-vortex devours all intruders before they can even scream.
11/08/2011 at 10:04 razgon says:
Green is the color of envy!
11/08/2011 at 10:13 rustybroomhandle says:
You’d also be paying to help fund the game because you like to help supporting indie game developers that ordinarily have little to no budget, and because you are an awesome guy.
11/08/2011 at 11:23 Freud says:
You have the option to if that is your preference. I suspect the ones willing to buy this early think they will get something out of it beyond bug finding.
11/08/2011 at 14:50 bowl of snakes says:
I will! wooooooo
11/08/2011 at 10:09 JackShandy says:
Fuck yes! I cannot wait to become a master of buggy deception and/or detection. Who’s with me?
11/08/2011 at 11:23 Temple says:
SOLDER
11/08/2011 at 14:23 Hodge says:
Somebody give that man an N!
11/08/2011 at 15:51 Nallen says:
I’ll see that SOLDER and raise you a WELD.
11/08/2011 at 22:17 Flame_US3r says:
I am fresh out of N’s, but I would be happy to give you an out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide
11/08/2011 at 10:34 ChainsawCharlie says:
Mid-June? We are talking about 2012 here no?
11/08/2011 at 10:52 TheMoo says:
His original estimate was “mid-June” (2011) so he probably won’t be making that.
11/08/2011 at 11:11 yhancik says:
Probably.
11/08/2011 at 11:14 mod the world says:
I’m no expert on this subject, but mid June is like 2 months ago.
11/08/2011 at 11:22 Temple says:
We funding a time machine instead?
Because I am not Beta-testing one of those.
11/08/2011 at 11:41 Zanchito says:
I’m interested in knowing if the game plays as good as it sounds.
11/08/2011 at 13:35 Rii says:
This trend is, frankly, nonsense. If you’re paying money, and receiving a product in exchange, then the game has been released and should be evaluated as such.
11/08/2011 at 13:54 Ba5 says:
The money is also helping him pay the bills so he can keep making the game instead of having to go out and find a job. It’s more about supporting the developer than buying the game. When it’s out of beta, then it will be about the full game.
11/08/2011 at 14:15 JackShandy says:
If you pre-order a game and they give you a demo in return, the full game obviously hasn’t been released, yeah? Same principle. If you did buy a normal game with a note on it saying “Everything in here will be changed soon” you’d be silly to evaluate it anyway.
11/08/2011 at 15:39 Rii says:
“If you did buy a normal game with a note on it saying “Everything in here will be changed soon” you’d be silly to evaluate it anyway.”
No you wouldn’t. It’d be silly to issue a FINAL VERDICT FOR ALL TIME and not acknowledge that the game will continue to develop, but there’s no reason to refrain from evaluating the product as it stands. Game developers shouldn’t be able to escape criticism merely by applying the ‘beta’ tag to a commercial product. World of Warcraft (the vanilla boxed game) has changed massively since its release in 2004. Should it not have been reviewed upon release?
11/08/2011 at 22:40 chackosan says:
An evaluation as it stands would certainly be useful – for one thing, it would help others decide whether to invest in early beta access or wait for the finished product. But if you were to treat it as a finished product, with no concession to the fact that the developer has stated it is a beta, that would be disingenuous.
Putting the ‘beta’ tag on the game shouldn’t shield him from criticisms of core elements of his product, like basic gameplay and implementation. But one would think it gave him some leeway on things like lack of polish and bugs, since by clearly stating it is a beta, he has effectively dissuaded consumers who have a problem with those things from buying.
It’s not a traditional method of financing a project, and I don’t think it serves much to treat it as such. Some people are obviously willing to pay to be extremely early adopters, and if that income can help out a developer without big money backing, I don’t really see why it’s nonsensical. It’s not like anyone’s under any obligation to pay if they don’t want to.
11/08/2011 at 15:09 gerafin says:
I played this game at PAX, and I must say, it seemed spectacularly promising. It’s a bit unbalanced between two new players – the sniper really has to play a few rounds before they start noticing odd behavior. But my friends and I had an absolute blast, I think this is going to become our LAN game of choice.
Also, wooo Chris Hecker! That man worked on this game all PAX instead of having fun like the rest of us. A day after PAX ended, he had a huge change log up, just based off of stuff he had seen people struggling with during the demonstrations. This man is dedicated, and a perfectionist, so I really think this is going to turn out brilliantly.
11/08/2011 at 16:59 celozzip says:
i’m still waiting for subversion to come out, of course, but like frozen synapse this is probably a nice way to waste a few hours in the meantime.
12/08/2011 at 11:20 MaliciousH says:
Since the first day I heard about this game, I think about a year ago or more. I have been interested in this game. It just sounds too good.
Sadly… I don’t think I can handle being in a paid beta anymore after Minecraft… unless it is really that good like how Minecraft was/is…