how do the "Most wanted games" translate into alpha games?

[SteveV]

right now Agricola is #1 and Power Grid #4 of the BGG Most Wanted for BGA...

what does this mean as far as estimated time coming to BGA? (as alphas)
weeks? months? maybe never?

Inquiring minds (that don't yet meet Reviewer criteria, 180 games more to play... )

[amoxycillin]

My assumption is that getting the licence from the Author/Publisher may be difficult and the programming could take a long time. So perhaps never

[Tisaac]

"Most wanted" is related in no way to the alphas and not even to the studio projects.
On one hand, people can share what they would like to see on the website.
On the other hand, the BGA admins ask publisher for licences, but not necessarily the one most wanted.
As a result, a list of available licences is shown on the studio here : https://studio.boardgamearena.com/licensing
Then any developper can start working on the project, then moving to alpha when it thinks it's ready, then it's reviewed and test with the publisher before going to beta.

[SteveV]

Thanks, I appreciate the responses. Being on the other end of the pipeline (and the hoping!) it's good to know what to expect.

I think that perhaps the Most Wanted should have a mention of the process and low likelyhood such that gamer folks don't get their hopes up too high for things that "seem" like the next project...

and, yes, I totally understand that even if there is a license given, that doesn't mean that it's easy or even feasible to program!

[paramesis]

If a game has been high on the list for a long time, developers and admins at BGA are certainly aware of it. For many of the top items on the list, the publisher has not granted a license, which could be for a variety of reasons entirely up to the publisher. Some others have projects started with varying levels of activity.

Almost all of the developers are volunteers making adaptations that interest them in their spare time, and as Tisaac said, they're not beholden to the list. By the way, that link doesn't work if you're not a developer.

[Marcuda]

On the bright side current #2 The Castles of Burgundy is in active development. The majority of the top most wanted games that actually have licenses available have projects going. As for how long? We're all volunteering our time here so it varies widely from weeks to months or more, assuming it doesn't get abandoned along the way.

The other things is that new licenses are added all the time. A game that was denied previously may become available over time or through a different publisher. Also, games that were granted can and have been revoked. That's one of the reasons they keep this info in one place on BGA Studio.