Steam's newest update promises better betas but only a few broken save games

Pop quiz, hotshot. How do you install the beta version of a Steam game? You click on the game you'd like to embeta-fy and then choose properties. Then you go to betas.

A nightmare of almost dizzying complex. Sort of. Okay, not really. Valve has made it even easier. Last Friday, a post on the Steamworks Blog informed developers that they can now easily get their players in and out of beta version of their games. Smoother, faster and downright expeditiously.

Valve says that accessing alternative build branches was previously a difficult process. Players had to use the Steam'settings panel' for a particular game. Steamworks APIs allow developers to now offer this choice within the game.

Devs can now add a button to their game. Steam will reboot the game and launch it in beta mode, tuned to the build selected by players. This is a much better system than posting a call for beta testers on a blog I won't read and hoping that someone will respond.

If you've played an early access title, you know how frustrating it can be when a sudden update wipes out your saves. You're forced to start over or, like me, wander off to never return to the game. Valve says that "players with hundreds of hours of gameplay may find their save file does not work with the latest version."

To stop this, a new API allows developers to "add some logic to their game to check if an existing save file exists, and which version of the games that save file belongs to." If the game that the user is playing is older than the version you're requesting, then you can prompt the user." The game can warn you if it detects that you're using a save file that will be broken by a new patch. You can then choose to play the older version of the game. I expect this to appear in Crusader Kings 3 soon.

All of this won't happen automatically. Developers will need to plug in the new APIs in their games. It should be relatively easy. (I say this with the confidence of someone whose most ambitious project in middle school was an HTML website.) Brothers, brace yourselves for better betas.