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Game Development vocabulary · Production, QA & Playtesting

Alpha

Meaning in game development, with examples

/ˈælfə/nounCore term

In game development, alpha means: The stage of development when all main features are in the game and it can be played from start to finish, but it still has many bugs, placeholders and no polish.

In Turkish: alfa, alfa sürümü

How it is used

Definitions differ between studios, so check what your publisher means by alpha. People talk about reaching alpha, an alpha build and a closed alpha test with selected players. After alpha comes beta.

Example sentences

  1. We hit alpha last week: every level is in, but half of them still use grey boxes.

  2. The closed alpha is only for 500 players who signed an NDA.

Common collocations

  • reach alpha
  • alpha build
  • closed alpha
  • alpha milestone
  • feature complete
  • betaThe stage after alpha when the game's content is complete and the team focuses on fixing bugs and polishing; also a public or closed test of that version.
  • milestoneAn agreed point in development when specific work must be delivered and reviewed, such as a playable demo, alpha or beta; publishers often pay the studio per milestone.
  • go goldWhen a game goes gold, its final release version is finished and approved, ready to be manufactured on discs or distributed to stores.
  • vertical sliceA short but fully finished part of a game, such as one level, that shows final quality in art, sound and gameplay to prove what the whole game will be like.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Production, QA & Playtesting

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