Updates: By the Numbers

By: Derek Yu

On: December 9th, 2011

Screenshot and texture pack by Leostereo of the Minecraft forums.

A number of alphas/betas I follow have had significant updates, so I thought I’d mention them together. Also, I’m updating the neglected “Dev Roll” on the sidebar to feature games that are in long-term development.

The first update is from Minecraft, which finally reached v1.0 last month, during the two-day Minecon that was held in Las Vegas. The update adds a proper ending and “hardcore mode” to the game, among other things (full changelog). After the release, Notch announced that he is relinquishing duties as lead developer to Jens Bergensten, who was originally hired to do back-end programming.

It’s worth noting that Minecraft made its public debut on TIGForums on May 17th, 2009. Check out the thread for a “Before They Were Stars”-style stroll down memory lane!

Terraria received a very large 1.1 update that adds more of pretty much everything.

Ace of Spades, the Minecraft-inspired, team-based online multiplayer deathmatch FPS (whew!), has hit v0.70. The above video probably describes AoS and the update better than I can, so take it away, uh… Morgasm. ;_;

King Arthur’s Gold, by Michał Marcinkowski and Geti, is another fun team game that’s progressing rapidly (build 228 as of writing). KAG recently split into free and premium editions and a Mac version is the latest development. But the interface and game mechanics are also evolving with each new build.

Running with Rifles was a pleasant surprise for me earlier this year. This top-down military shooter puts you in the heart of battle, with large numbers of AI friends and foes all around you. At version 0.4, which introduced online multiplayer, the updates became available only as pre-orders (the current version is 0.52). You can still download the offline build of 0.4 for free, however.

Natural Selection 2 (Build 189) is also looking extremely good these days.

Finally, here’s some footage of Xenonauts Alpha v8.2, which introduces the research tree and puts alien UFOs on the battlefield. The developers have also launched a new website for the game. Also, pre-orders, which were temporarily down due to PayPal shenanigans, are now back up, thanks to Desura.

That’s it for me! What alphas and betas are you following?