Three Builds to Beta!
It’s been a while coming, but Xenonauts is now on the (short) road to beta! We unveiled our “Three Builds to Beta” plan on the forums a few weeks back, and have been working towards it ever since. In fact, we’ve been so bad at keeping this news feed updated that we’re almost halfway through this programme already – the second of the three builds is due out within the next two weeks!
The idea of the plan is to reach beta by 9th October – beta being a feature-complete state where the game could feasibly be released as a finished game. It won’t initially be a very good game, but we’ll be turning our attention from developing new features and content to bugfixing, polishing and balancing our existing content once we are there. From a pre-orderer point of view, the main improvement will be that we’ll stop cutting out all of the high-end tech and enemies. You’ll be able to play the game from start to finish with the full research tree and all the toys.
There are naturally some provisos – the game won’t be 100% finished in asset terms. As an example, not all the battlefield tiles will be finished in six weeks time, so there’ll be plenty of maps with low numbers of props or rendered 3D building tiles that have not yet recieved their final 2D paintover. There might be missing animations, or some missing sounds. But there shoud be plenty of major improvements over the current builds too - there should be a workable AI, for example, which is one of the major issues with the existing game. There will be more than two maps in the game, and all the tilesets should be present in some form too.
And for those who haven’t been following on the forums, the major additions in the last build (V13) were:
- Three day delay before puchased equipment / hired personnel arrive
- Bleeding wounds system for soldiers
- Buildings collapse if sufficient numbers of walls are shot out
- C4 charge and Flashbang added to the game
- Combat Shield code added
- Alien clips converted to Alenium after battle instead of sold
- New tilesets added to the game (though no maps for them yet)
- Various smaller things
The date of the 9th October has been chosen because it is the release date of the new Firaxis X-Com game. Not only will I be busy for a couple of days playing it after the 9th, it’ll cause anther surge of interest in our game (as X-Com will cause a surge of interest in the genre) so it makes sense for us to be looking our best when it does arrive.
Of course, there may be snags along the way and we can’t promise we’ll hit the deadlines (the rendering is looking a bit tight at the moment), but we’ve got something to aim for now and we’ll do our best!
NOTE - the next few builds will be much less stable than you are used to. This is because we're busy adding content rather than fixing bugs.
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Funding period
May 8, 2012 -
Jun 10, 2012
(33 days)
- First created · 5 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: xenonauts.com
Pledge $20 or more
3082 backers
Standard Pre-Order: A digital copy of Xenonauts on release (retail price $25), plus access to our development builds and beta testing until the game is complete! This also includes a special silver forum medal for our forums.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $30 or more
877 backers
Premium Pre-Order: As above, but includes a spangly gold forum medal, a digital copy of the Xenonauts soundtrack, official desktop wallpapers, plus a lengthy digital write-up of our development diary on release.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $50 or more
151 backers
Premium Pre-Order plus one of: a T-shirt, poster or digital copy of the Xenonauts Art Book. Please add $10 for international shipping if selecting the poster or T-shirt!
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $50 or more
101 backers
Premium Pre-Order (as $30), plus a phyiscal copy of the game. This will be a standard black DVD case with a colour printed back and front, containing a 20-page manual and a printed DVD copy of Xenonauts. Please add $10 for international shipping.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $50 or more
50 backers
A Premium Pre-Order (as $30), plus an additional Premium Pre-Order copy of Xenonauts to give to a friend!
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $60 or more
45 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus a physical softback copy of the Xenonauts Art Book (see FAQ for full details of the book - it's awesome)! Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $75 or more
18 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus two of: T-shirt, poster, digital copy of Xenonauts Art Book. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $85 or more
21 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus softback Art Book and one of the $50 rewards (t-shirt, poster, physical DVD copy or a second digital copy to give to a friend)!
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $100 or more
12 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus limited-edition hardback physical copy of Xenonauts Art Book. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $100 or more
38 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus backer name will be added into the pre-generated soldier name database and will appear in the game as a soldier! (see FAQ for full details)
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $125 or more
6 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus limited edition hardback physical copy of Xenonauts Art Book OR backer name will be added to pre-generated soldier name database, plus one of the $50 rewards (poster, t-shirt, physical DVD copy, second digital copy for friend)! Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $125 or more
11 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus limited edition hardback physical copy of Xenonauts Art Book and backer name will be added to pre-generated soldier name database! Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $150 or more
85 backers
Premium Pre-Order, plus limited edition SIGNED hardback Xenonauts art book, plus poster and T-shirt. Backer name and nationality is also added to pre-generated soldier name database, and soldier portrait may be selected from the existing in-game portraits. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $200 or more
70 backers All gone!
As $150, plus our character artist will do a portrait of you from a photograph to accompany the soldier bearing your name. See the FAQ for full details. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $500 or more
11 backers Limited (4 of 15 left)
As $200, plus you will recieve five (5) digital copies of the game to do with as you will plus your name will be added to the a special "With Thanks To:" section of the game credits. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $1,000 or more
2 backers Limited (3 of 5 left)
As $500, but you will recieve ten (10) digital copies of the game and your name will also be added to the "Special Thanks To" section displayed in the intro credits that will be played over the game intro movie. Please add $10 for international shipping if required.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $5,000 or more
0 backers Limited (1 of 1 left)
As $1000, but Xenonauts Project Lead Chris England will fly out to meet you for lunch (available anywhere in the US or Western Europe). We'll also let you off the $10 international shipping, as we're nice like that!
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012
Comments
Creator BillD4 on November 9, 2012
I second Dave's request, for the same reason. :D
Creator Dave Michalak on October 8, 2012
I will definitely be playing the heck out of XCOM (actually, both of them), but I have already seen that there are some aspects of the original that it will not fulfill for me. I'll be looking forward to Xenonauts to fill in those gaps.
Also, can I get an updated ETA on the final release so I can update my Kickstarted spreadsheet? Thanks!
Creator ImpKeeper Bjørn Rasmussen on October 3, 2012
when is the steam release ? XD
Creator Gilbert Palau on September 12, 2012
Got an interesting comment to make regarding the Caribbean Base. Why is Havana Cuba listed in the map but not San Juan, PR (that is a US Territory)??
Creator Patrick Corneliess on August 21, 2012
Are these builds accessible through desura? Because it keeps telling me it needs an update and then giving me a weird error message.
Creator Adam Collins on August 21, 2012
This is really exciting!
Creator Runar Jenssen on August 16, 2012
Yeah Marcin's idea wasn't half-bad at all! I think it should be more expensive though (just like in real-life, high priority shipping often costs double if not more), but it would be a great feature for those moments when you just absolutely need certain gear, to avoid having the game fail on you (with the high price it would still be likely that you could fail, but it would at least give you another variable, another chance). :)
Creator David Sherman on August 16, 2012
Sounds great! I look forward to seeing what is coming.
Creator Ben Mitchell on August 16, 2012
Can't wait for the new build. :)
Creator drakrochma on August 16, 2012
That´s an option i would prefer and that should not cause much work, or?
Everything else looks great.
Once the final release is out, I think I will have to call my boss and tell him I am ill for a few days ;)
Creator Marcin Dabrowski on August 16, 2012
The arrival delay system sounds good for strategic planning, but how about adding an "expedite" option which would make the delivery arrive within a day but add, say, 15% premium on the purchase?
just a thought :)