Secrets of Grindea Windows game

55 comments by TheodoreVanGrind on Aug 28th, 2012

What the beta is
It's a way for you to help us make a better game, by finding bugs, annoyances, and sharing your thoughts on what can be improved upon (and the things we've got right).

What the beta isn't
The Minecraft Alpha, where you could already do a ton of stuff, and where its open ended nature meant that the alpha version was pretty much a complete game in a sense. So, if what you're yearning for is the final product, a beta might not be for you!

How long is the beta?
For the average player, a playthrough where you disregard everything but the main quest would probably take about 30 minutes.

If you complete the side quests, up to 60 minutes.

Getting 100 % completion (side quests, rare drops, cards, crafting, fishing, challenges, etc) would likely take a few hours.

The game isn't very long yet, as we're still in a phase where we add new features, and we want to be somewhat done with the basic framework before going into full content crunch. 

How many people will be invited?
In two weeks, we'll invite 5-6 people, mainly to test out the system. A week after that we'll send out more invites. How many sort of depends on the amount of interest shown, but a majority will probably get in. Since we want new ”first impressions” between each major update, we want to keep a portion of potential beta users on standby.

After the beta has begun, older applications will be picked first, so if you post before the start of the beta, you're pretty much guaranteed to get access within the first few updates.

Do I need Desura?
Yes, you'll need Desura. For those not sure what it is, it's basically like Steam (but more lightweight). We use this platform because it makes it very easy for us to gather the community and manage invites etc, as well as providing some convenient features like auto updating.

Enough with the info! Where do I sign up?
There's a forum thread in our beta section where you can throw a post at us to share your interest in participating! Log in with your Desura/IndieDB account and post whatever. If you're someone we might know from another community, feel free to mention that in the post! You absolutely don't need to write a pitch or anything – apart from some veterans the picks will be random.

When you get invited to the beta, you'll also be invited to a private group where you can discuss the game with us and other users!