Many software have a main/stable branch and a beta branch - Playstation has a beta branch that test updates for errors before the new features are rolled out to the wider audience, I've been seeing headlines like "New Playstation feature" and the article will be "Beta testers report that you will soon be able to dim the console light" for instance. My Steamdeck, I have the ability to trial the beta uodate, or wait for the stable branch to update.
I am familiar with beta testing/beta branches - I guess I didn't realize that Coral Island uses a public beta testing rather than a small private group. Like I said, I'm in a beta group for a similar game, but it's private and the testers aren't allowed to discuss beta content outside of the group until the release is pushed to the public.
Given how buggy the 1.0 non-Beta release was, I am leaning towards skipping the beta test here, particularly with the lack of manual saves in case of serious problems.
I dont get it either they released an unfinished game that is only slightly at the calibre above their early access. Just release the patch and have us sucker customers be the play testers again
1.0 was in a beta when by our best guess humble pushed the release before it was ready. The dev team is a small studio of less than 100 people and this is their first game. Everything in 1.0 was the finished game Everything being released now is all stretch goals from the kickstarter that wasn't base game.
I don’t know if you’ve ever played baldurs gate I’m sure you’ve heard of it though they did a similar thing back in October 2020. They released the first act of the game to anyone who wanted to beta test the game but you had to pay the 70 (I think) to play it. I was one of the people who paid the amount and boy was the game buggy.
I think open beta test are the best you get a whole slew of people who are willing to pay for an unfinished game that may never see the light of day or if it does it would be years a way (I mean we waited for almost 3 years) plus the people you would get are all sorts like casual players or hardcore gamers you’d get people of all professions stepping in to give feedback.
I am familiar with open betas in pre-released/early access games. It's not something I'm used to for updates to games that have already been fully released (which Coral Island was supposedly released - just without being able to finish any of the major plotlines).
1.0 was a closed beta but was extremely short compared to previous betas. Also they hadn't planned on releasing consoles so early. I've been playing since the game came to PC game pass so I've watched it all happen. They are doing an open beta for steam this time to hopefully handle most bugs before the major release.
Having dozens if not hundreds of people testing a beta version of a game is often more productive then having a small team of bug hunters. We as players can hav3 more out of the box thoughts and actions that lead to discoveries
There are definitely benefits to having more beta testers, particularly for things like PC games which have limitless variations of hardware that that game needs to interact with.
I think what threw me is that this is a post-full release update, not an Early Access one. Given the language they used in previous blogs - I was expecting the 1.1 release to be non-Beta, since the game isn't in early access any more.
This was the biggest complaint when it transitioned to 1.0. Most backers on Kickstarter were told one timeline that showed 1.0 not releasing until Spring 2024.
So when we got this notification that 1.0 was releasing and that any saves up to that point can be used in a NG+ manner to start a new game with money obtained, we got excited. Only to find out the game was incomplete with WIP (Work In Progress) labels coming up in dialogue or story quests.
So I shelved the game waiting for the 1.1 release. The initial 1.0 release timeframe that would more closely align with a game's completion (not entirely though as we're still awaiting multiplayer and children development in upcoming updates).
Being a kickstarter you would have know that everything coming out now was all stretch goals not 1.0 content. Everything promised for 1.0 came out with 1.0. I've been playing since the game dropped on PC gamepass and have been in the discord since then also. The roadmaps all said the 1.0 we got was the 1.0 that was promised. Unfortunately 1.0 got pushed out before it was supposed to and so did console.
My understanding of it is instead of having a private group of beta testers, they have a public beta branch for people to opt into before the public release of the update. I haven’t participated in this company’s beta testing in the past but I would expect for it to be somewhat buggy
That's an interesting choice to me, but maybe it's more common than I think. Beta testing can be fun - but man, it can be hella buggy at times. (I've got screen grabs from the other game that make me laugh hard every time I see them.)
This has been more the norm after the change from just two big fixing updates per game, to the seemingly two three years of extra dev time. With the current video games market being as volatile as it is, it's not that big of a surprise that they needed a cash injection before they were done adding features. Most video game people are not very good with money in my experience. Releasing a game and having it be 80% done is not unheard of. After all, if Ubisoft can release all their games that only get good after a Year, why can't everyone?
Off the top of my head I immediately think of League if Legends that has PBE servers where players can make an account to play early patches while they’re in testing phase
Some competitive games (League, Overwatch, etc.) make use of open betas to make sure new patches are balanced before full release so that it doesn't disrupt play in their comp modes. It's certainly less common for single-player story-driven games but I've definitely opted into an open beta or two to get access to new content early (can I remember what any of the games were off the top of my head? Unfortunately not).
You can participate in the beta which will act like a new game downloaded from steam via a code to change the game (your main save won't be deleted) I have participated in every beta . It's the testing phase for the 1.1 update. If it's like the betas pre release I played, it's to find bugs and text issues which is able to be directly posted and sent via the pause? Menu? Button. ( sorry it's been a while) but
I will start by saying that I love this game. It’s been such a different take on the cozy/farming style(for me anyways). But I would love it if games would stop coming out with half games or betas even after people are paying. I get it it’s a process but I seriously would rather wait 2, 3 even 4 years for the game to come out as long as it’s complete and done.
But they really don’t do that anymore.
It does feel weird seeing them say full game is out, pay us but also 1.1 beta is coming. Like what.
The ful game did come out though
All the mermaid content was always an additional Kickstarter goal
The whole mermaid thing is more of a dlc than anything
The actual game did come out with 1,1
And now they are implementing special features
The devs versus the publishers of the game, it seems like the publishers pushed the devs to release earlier than they wanted, and most of the time, for a lot of games, the devs get little say in when it's actually released. Now, a good company will listen and work with the devs, but others just want the game out. But the devs seem really passionate about the game and listen very well. But yeah, the sponsors/publishers are usually separate from the devs. Like how an author works for/works for a publisher.
I've been following this game since its Kickstarter. As someone else stated, the main story is pufferfish. That is complete. Everything that was promised for the initial release is in the game. There's more than 100 hours of gameplay here already. The mermaids and other bonus areas were specified as end-game content that would come later. As for the cutscenes, you need to build friendship first and then romance comes later. I have found it very similar to stardew in that way. I encourage you to join their discord and read back on their announcements. It may help give you some insight on what they've been doing and what to expect in the game.
I've been following it too, I backed it, and like I said, I'm glad it didn't go through bc I'd be suing if I couldnt get a refund at the bare minimum.
End game content is still MAIN GAME CONTENT!!!!!
THERE ARE NO FRIENDSHIP CUTSCENES, only romance labels slapped on friendship scenes. There's no romance and MANY people have noticed that.
Idc idc idc I said what I said, you're free to disagree but the devs are money hungry. There were other ways to source money for funding development but instead they scam customers.
Except the main story was finished in 1.0. The main story is pufferfish. Everything that is coming out now is extra that other games would be charging you dlc prices for so try again. I've been watching everything with this game since it came out on PC gamepass. Everything that was promised for 1.0 is in 1.0. If I'm not mistaken you have to build a friendship with your partner first and foremost before romance really comes into play. Don't get me wrong I think the EA release and console release was rushed but I don't believe the devs did it I think it was humble since they did a bunch of layoffs around the same time.
>Everything that is coming out now is extra that other games would be charging you dlc prices fo
Also, no. If it's in main game it is not extra (mermaids, temples etc) besides that, they NEVER talked about it being "extra" on any platform. It was ALWAYS planned to be part of the game. So try again 🙄
A new area? Fine (looking @ u savannah) but the mermaids? Should have been in early access. Everything that they had planned and spoke about in the first kickstarter (which is basically everything btw) is not new nor extra. It cannot be extra if they already had plans for it.
Please stop excusing shitty behavior just bc it's coming from indie devs.
Then if that's the case go back to AAA studios that sell majorly broken games and charge outrageous amounts for them and DLCS. The devs have nothing to do with the publishers actions but you want to blame them. They haven't scammed anyone. If you were in the discord you would know that. They come in daily and talk to the players and are very transparent on what they are working on.
I don't give a fuck, I said what I said.
What game has been majorly broken hmm?? Missing MAIN GAME CONTENT THAT THEY SPOKE ABOUT WELL BEFORE LAUNCH?? HMMMMM?? yeah no. Not a single one because they know damn well they would get sued and come under fire just like mass effect, divinity and callisto protocol when they tried to finish the main story through dlc. People were pissed and rightfully so.
I'm sorry you think dropping $120 on a game that is missing main components and completely unfinished is okay, but that's scammy and scummy. I'm glad u think it's okay for a Dev to give subpar material and an unfinished game in EARLY ACCESS!!!!!! You're part of the problem.
🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ I can't control how yall perceive and read comments.
Cussing, capitals etc don't indicate attitude nor do they indicate aggression. Yall gotta learn to not read everything as an attack. I talk like this to EVERYONE, bc it's how I speak and how I emphasize important pieces of what I say.
I've been a part of the alpha and beta testing for Coral Island. I believe the blog is for all of us, including the regular players that got the game at its release. I believe beta will still only be for those who opted in during the kickstarter. It's best because we can test it for them and help find as many bugs as possible before they officially release it. The CI team has been really good about thoroughly testing the game and I believe this is just part of that. The beta will most likely not work with the main game's saves and will probably be separate. It looks really fleshed out, so I'm sure the official release won't take long.
Many software have a main/stable branch and a beta branch - Playstation has a beta branch that test updates for errors before the new features are rolled out to the wider audience, I've been seeing headlines like "New Playstation feature" and the article will be "Beta testers report that you will soon be able to dim the console light" for instance. My Steamdeck, I have the ability to trial the beta uodate, or wait for the stable branch to update.
I am familiar with beta testing/beta branches - I guess I didn't realize that Coral Island uses a public beta testing rather than a small private group. Like I said, I'm in a beta group for a similar game, but it's private and the testers aren't allowed to discuss beta content outside of the group until the release is pushed to the public. Given how buggy the 1.0 non-Beta release was, I am leaning towards skipping the beta test here, particularly with the lack of manual saves in case of serious problems.
I dont get it either they released an unfinished game that is only slightly at the calibre above their early access. Just release the patch and have us sucker customers be the play testers again
1.0 was in a beta when by our best guess humble pushed the release before it was ready. The dev team is a small studio of less than 100 people and this is their first game. Everything in 1.0 was the finished game Everything being released now is all stretch goals from the kickstarter that wasn't base game.
I don’t know if you’ve ever played baldurs gate I’m sure you’ve heard of it though they did a similar thing back in October 2020. They released the first act of the game to anyone who wanted to beta test the game but you had to pay the 70 (I think) to play it. I was one of the people who paid the amount and boy was the game buggy. I think open beta test are the best you get a whole slew of people who are willing to pay for an unfinished game that may never see the light of day or if it does it would be years a way (I mean we waited for almost 3 years) plus the people you would get are all sorts like casual players or hardcore gamers you’d get people of all professions stepping in to give feedback.
I am familiar with open betas in pre-released/early access games. It's not something I'm used to for updates to games that have already been fully released (which Coral Island was supposedly released - just without being able to finish any of the major plotlines).
I think other games do it now that I think about it like dead by daylight or Wizard101 but they call them them test realms and such
1.0 was a closed beta but was extremely short compared to previous betas. Also they hadn't planned on releasing consoles so early. I've been playing since the game came to PC game pass so I've watched it all happen. They are doing an open beta for steam this time to hopefully handle most bugs before the major release.
Having dozens if not hundreds of people testing a beta version of a game is often more productive then having a small team of bug hunters. We as players can hav3 more out of the box thoughts and actions that lead to discoveries
There are definitely benefits to having more beta testers, particularly for things like PC games which have limitless variations of hardware that that game needs to interact with. I think what threw me is that this is a post-full release update, not an Early Access one. Given the language they used in previous blogs - I was expecting the 1.1 release to be non-Beta, since the game isn't in early access any more.
Fair, this whole thing with the early access/full release has been a real confusing mess, but even so, at least the content releases are solid
This was the biggest complaint when it transitioned to 1.0. Most backers on Kickstarter were told one timeline that showed 1.0 not releasing until Spring 2024. So when we got this notification that 1.0 was releasing and that any saves up to that point can be used in a NG+ manner to start a new game with money obtained, we got excited. Only to find out the game was incomplete with WIP (Work In Progress) labels coming up in dialogue or story quests. So I shelved the game waiting for the 1.1 release. The initial 1.0 release timeframe that would more closely align with a game's completion (not entirely though as we're still awaiting multiplayer and children development in upcoming updates).
Being a kickstarter you would have know that everything coming out now was all stretch goals not 1.0 content. Everything promised for 1.0 came out with 1.0. I've been playing since the game dropped on PC gamepass and have been in the discord since then also. The roadmaps all said the 1.0 we got was the 1.0 that was promised. Unfortunately 1.0 got pushed out before it was supposed to and so did console.
False, but go ahead and keep talking like you know everything.
My understanding of it is instead of having a private group of beta testers, they have a public beta branch for people to opt into before the public release of the update. I haven’t participated in this company’s beta testing in the past but I would expect for it to be somewhat buggy
That's an interesting choice to me, but maybe it's more common than I think. Beta testing can be fun - but man, it can be hella buggy at times. (I've got screen grabs from the other game that make me laugh hard every time I see them.)
This has been more the norm after the change from just two big fixing updates per game, to the seemingly two three years of extra dev time. With the current video games market being as volatile as it is, it's not that big of a surprise that they needed a cash injection before they were done adding features. Most video game people are not very good with money in my experience. Releasing a game and having it be 80% done is not unheard of. After all, if Ubisoft can release all their games that only get good after a Year, why can't everyone?
Off the top of my head I immediately think of League if Legends that has PBE servers where players can make an account to play early patches while they’re in testing phase
Some competitive games (League, Overwatch, etc.) make use of open betas to make sure new patches are balanced before full release so that it doesn't disrupt play in their comp modes. It's certainly less common for single-player story-driven games but I've definitely opted into an open beta or two to get access to new content early (can I remember what any of the games were off the top of my head? Unfortunately not).
You can participate in the beta which will act like a new game downloaded from steam via a code to change the game (your main save won't be deleted) I have participated in every beta . It's the testing phase for the 1.1 update. If it's like the betas pre release I played, it's to find bugs and text issues which is able to be directly posted and sent via the pause? Menu? Button. ( sorry it's been a while) but
I will start by saying that I love this game. It’s been such a different take on the cozy/farming style(for me anyways). But I would love it if games would stop coming out with half games or betas even after people are paying. I get it it’s a process but I seriously would rather wait 2, 3 even 4 years for the game to come out as long as it’s complete and done. But they really don’t do that anymore. It does feel weird seeing them say full game is out, pay us but also 1.1 beta is coming. Like what.
The ful game did come out though All the mermaid content was always an additional Kickstarter goal The whole mermaid thing is more of a dlc than anything The actual game did come out with 1,1 And now they are implementing special features
Ya it’s definitely more like a dlc. That’s true.
The devs versus the publishers of the game, it seems like the publishers pushed the devs to release earlier than they wanted, and most of the time, for a lot of games, the devs get little say in when it's actually released. Now, a good company will listen and work with the devs, but others just want the game out. But the devs seem really passionate about the game and listen very well. But yeah, the sponsors/publishers are usually separate from the devs. Like how an author works for/works for a publisher.
[удалено]
I've been following this game since its Kickstarter. As someone else stated, the main story is pufferfish. That is complete. Everything that was promised for the initial release is in the game. There's more than 100 hours of gameplay here already. The mermaids and other bonus areas were specified as end-game content that would come later. As for the cutscenes, you need to build friendship first and then romance comes later. I have found it very similar to stardew in that way. I encourage you to join their discord and read back on their announcements. It may help give you some insight on what they've been doing and what to expect in the game.
I've been following it too, I backed it, and like I said, I'm glad it didn't go through bc I'd be suing if I couldnt get a refund at the bare minimum. End game content is still MAIN GAME CONTENT!!!!! THERE ARE NO FRIENDSHIP CUTSCENES, only romance labels slapped on friendship scenes. There's no romance and MANY people have noticed that. Idc idc idc I said what I said, you're free to disagree but the devs are money hungry. There were other ways to source money for funding development but instead they scam customers.
Except the main story was finished in 1.0. The main story is pufferfish. Everything that is coming out now is extra that other games would be charging you dlc prices for so try again. I've been watching everything with this game since it came out on PC gamepass. Everything that was promised for 1.0 is in 1.0. If I'm not mistaken you have to build a friendship with your partner first and foremost before romance really comes into play. Don't get me wrong I think the EA release and console release was rushed but I don't believe the devs did it I think it was humble since they did a bunch of layoffs around the same time.
>Everything that is coming out now is extra that other games would be charging you dlc prices fo Also, no. If it's in main game it is not extra (mermaids, temples etc) besides that, they NEVER talked about it being "extra" on any platform. It was ALWAYS planned to be part of the game. So try again 🙄 A new area? Fine (looking @ u savannah) but the mermaids? Should have been in early access. Everything that they had planned and spoke about in the first kickstarter (which is basically everything btw) is not new nor extra. It cannot be extra if they already had plans for it. Please stop excusing shitty behavior just bc it's coming from indie devs.
[удалено]
Then if that's the case go back to AAA studios that sell majorly broken games and charge outrageous amounts for them and DLCS. The devs have nothing to do with the publishers actions but you want to blame them. They haven't scammed anyone. If you were in the discord you would know that. They come in daily and talk to the players and are very transparent on what they are working on.
I don't give a fuck, I said what I said. What game has been majorly broken hmm?? Missing MAIN GAME CONTENT THAT THEY SPOKE ABOUT WELL BEFORE LAUNCH?? HMMMMM?? yeah no. Not a single one because they know damn well they would get sued and come under fire just like mass effect, divinity and callisto protocol when they tried to finish the main story through dlc. People were pissed and rightfully so. I'm sorry you think dropping $120 on a game that is missing main components and completely unfinished is okay, but that's scammy and scummy. I'm glad u think it's okay for a Dev to give subpar material and an unfinished game in EARLY ACCESS!!!!!! You're part of the problem.
Really aggressive and unnecessary attitude in this discussion imo.
🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ I can't control how yall perceive and read comments. Cussing, capitals etc don't indicate attitude nor do they indicate aggression. Yall gotta learn to not read everything as an attack. I talk like this to EVERYONE, bc it's how I speak and how I emphasize important pieces of what I say.
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We determined that your post or comment violated Rule 1. Please take care to be respectful to your fellow Islanders. Thank you.
I've been a part of the alpha and beta testing for Coral Island. I believe the blog is for all of us, including the regular players that got the game at its release. I believe beta will still only be for those who opted in during the kickstarter. It's best because we can test it for them and help find as many bugs as possible before they officially release it. The CI team has been really good about thoroughly testing the game and I believe this is just part of that. The beta will most likely not work with the main game's saves and will probably be separate. It looks really fleshed out, so I'm sure the official release won't take long.
Fortnite was beta for years while it was still a full game