Alpha is a standard term to denote a milestone release during production in which game functionality is all included (but bug-ridden and not optimised), game content is largely represented (but may require polish), and which is considered sound enough for deep testing. Alphas are frequently points of contention between developers and publishers (or between internal teams and management) because they are often defined well in advance of actual delivery, before the constraints of the project are well understood.
Alphas are preceded by prototype, pre-alpha and (sometimes) vertical slice milestones. They are followed by beta (and sometimes open beta), release candidate and gold master milestones.
Related Topics
Agile Development, Beta, Clean Development, Customer Validation, Demo, Game Design Document, Lean, Kano Model, Prototype, Publisher
