Today's Super Tilt Bro. release is especially important. There is the last shiny big feature shipped, of course, but mostly the version changed from ALPHA-7 to BETA-1.

As for what that means, let's define ALPHA and BETA meaning in Super Tilt Bro. development. An ALPHA is a playable build, nothing more, it is just more enjoyable than the precedent ALPHA. The game reaches BETA status when all major features of the engine needed for the RELEASE are operational. It means that, in BETA, the evolution of the game will be geared around game-design, aesthetics, game-balance, etc. All that things that make a great game.

Once the game will reach RELEASE status, it will be numbered, a new set of features will be determined and the next version will begin its ALPHA. Cycling like it for the lifetime of the project.

Going to BETA is actually a big choice to do. Forbidding to rework the engine, forcing to get the best game that can be pulled out of this piece of code. And now seems to be the perfect time for that! The features list begin to be enough to get a nice little game. While it is hard to throw away some ideas, the project needs to progress and feature-creep will be of no help.

That's also the perfect time to take a step back and watch what was made. So here is the technical features list as of this beta:

• Global:
  
  • Menu navigation
  • Music engine
  • Versus mode
• Versus Mode:
  
  • Two players
  • One player versus AI
  • Multiple stages to select from
  • Solid blocks and lightweight platforms
  • One character (with color changes between players)
  • An animation engine using superposition of sprites to 3D-rotate animations
  • Full set of smash like moves (direction + attack button)
  • Physics, inertia and ways to fool them (like double jump)

Let's see what we can do from here. The ALPHA is dead, long live the BETA!