Board Game Arena

i am unclear reading the docs how the rename-project-to-final-game-name process works. does it happen completely on the bga side, i tell bga the final name and current project when i want to go to public beta, and bga handles everything on their end? or do i need to create a new project with the target name and bga handles moving from old to new? or do i just do everything manually re-requesting alpha status/ re-adding all users?

To rename a project, you can create the project with the good name, use the overwrite function in the Manage game page to copy the code in the good name from the project with the bad name. Then you can request your alpha with the good name like any project.
If the project with the good name is not available, or your project is already in alpha with the bad name (we try to avoid that, but we could have missed it), please contact the Studio support (Contact us / support at the bottom of every Studio page).