In this thread we find out exactly who doesn’t know anything about game development or how early alpha games look.
Here’s the real problem. How many games have had ALPHA FOOTAGE trailers that look feature complete? The problem is the gaming industry has conditioned people to what they think alpha is supposed to look like.
This. Is not. Pre-Alpha. Footage.
These examples all feature fully realized worlds that are properly lit, rendered, textured, have working scripts and actions, voice acting etc.
This is where stuff starts to get really sneaky. The game might be in “pre alpha” in its development cycle but these trailers are called “vertical slices” like taking a slice of a big cake. You can see all the layers. But that’s only one small portion of the cake. The rest isn’t cooked yet. Publishers do this for investors, for consumers. Essentially to say hey thanks for the money you have or will give us here is the product so far.
Which is why so often alpha and beta footage looks RADICALLY different from the final product. Well why would a game end up looking worse than it’s alpha footage? Because it was all bullshit. That slice was just a small portion and it promised the moon but when the rubber hit the road the target platform often can’t run at that spec.
So this footage? OP’s footage? That’s the real alpha. Like babies, they’re ugly and missing tons of features when they’re in development.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Don’t forget to see my assistant on your way out for a signed copy of my book: You Have to Ramble Before You Can Run: A Monologue