ALPHA PHASE HAS STARTED!

ACS3 development has recently entered closed alpha phase and the first alpha release was sent out to a few testers! This is a huge milestone, it means that ACS3 is no longer just a mess of code and assets on my own machine ;). Now I can start involving users other than myself in testing and providing feedback.

The development process of such big project as ACS3 can be tedious. If you’re one man army you have to work on all the levels, from tiny functions in the core code (the smallest scale) through larger classes, to individual features, to workflows consisting from a few features to overlooking program as a whole. It’s very easy to get lost in fragmented tasks and loose track of your vision. However, there are these critical moments when you feel things are actually coming together. Reaching alpha stage with ACS3 is one such moment (there were a few more before that, just as crucial).

This first alpha is very basic though. It’s mostly about wrapping up the legwork that had to be done for ACS3 to start working like a proper product: build process, installation, licensing, fundamentals of UI/UX and then simple workflows.This is the first time I can see ACS3 as coherent whole. Now I can start building on top of that.

Here’s a little animation loop that I’ve just received from Francois Daigle, one of the most dedicated ACS users :). It is REALLY good to see that after more than 2 years of keeping the software to myself. I hope it’s just a beginning…