Alpha Testing
You have a key (or want one). Here's how the alpha works.
Keys
- Keys are personal, look like
NAME-ALPHA-001, and are case-insensitive. - The launcher asks once; the game asks once. Same key.
- A key is live when the current release accepts it — if a brand-new key bounces, tell us; you may be one release early.
- Want a key? Ask — the roster grows a few testers at a time.
Reporting bugs
Bug reports go to the GitHub issue tracker (link ships with your key). The form has fields for what happened, what you expected, and your OS.
A great report has three things:
- What you did — the 10 seconds before it broke
- What happened vs what you expected
- A screenshot if it's visual
"It crashed when I quit while docked on Mac" is a great bug report. Don't overthink it.
What to hammer on
Current focus areas rotate — your key email says what's hot. Perennials:
- Wall collision — corners, tight corridors, wedging into things and turning
- The editor — build a sector, TEST FLY it, try to confuse the tile tools
- Zone switching — worlds, saves, the recycle bin
- Cross-platform — anything that behaves differently on Windows vs macOS
Known quirks
- WASD doesn't fly the ship. Arrows. It's Subspace. See Controls.
- macOS: disable Mission Control's Ctrl+Arrow shortcuts before flying (System Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control).
- A ship jammed nose-first in a too-tight slot can't rotate until it backs off — that's physics, not a bug.