First of all, thanks for everyone's interest in Realm Works!
We just got home from GenCon late last night and I'm exhausted. The attendance at GenCon this year was way up from last year and our booth was crazy busy most of the show. We did hundreds of Realm Works demos and the feedback was incredibly positive, with virtually everyone saying the product does way more than they were expecting, so I think we're on the right track.
Now to address all the major questions....
Beta testing has *not* started yet, nor have we begun taking sign-ups yet. We are tentatively planning to start Beta testing in late November. Look for details on how to sign-up both here on the forums and in our monthly newsletter over the next couple of months. Please be patient and we'll get the word out as soon as we're confident that we're ready to start the Beta process.
For those of you who didn't have the chance to see Realm Works at GenCon, we'll be updating the website in the next few weeks. The actual product is vastly more sophisticated than is currently reflected on the website, as I'm sure anyone who saw the preview can attest.
I'm sure some of you want to know the official release date, and the answer is simply "next year". We're breaking a lot of new ground with Realm Works, and we've included a long list of features that we think everyone will want and need. However, we may have overlooked some things and/or done some things inefficiently. We expect to learn a lot during the Beta testing period, and there may be things we need to add and/or rethink. The actual release depends heavily on what we learn during Beta testing, so we'll provide a better official release estimate after we get a few months into Beta testing. My best *guess* at this point is next spring.
There's also the question of pricing. We have some ideas, but we need to get concrete data on how people will actually utilize Realm Works before we can nail down anything official. That data will be gained during Beta testing. So we won't have any pricing details to announce until we have that data to evaluate - i.e. until we get close to release.
The bottom line is that we still have a lot to do before Realm Works is ready for wide release. Please be patient and we'll keep everyone apprised as things firm up. The next big step is Beta testing and the details for that will be posted in the next couple of months.
Thanks!!