We're about 100 commits past update Alpaca (which, by the way, didn't include an actual alpaca, that's just the name we picked).
We've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work. We're poking around and scrapping things that didn't work well, and we're updating things to be much more modular and easy to tweak. We've been tweaking them a lot. We've demoed it to over 100 people who have been quite amused. One player claimed that it was more fun than a room full of puppies.
There's a lot of new territory to explore in beach ball valley. You can easily make a less than satisfying beach ball filled fen. The hills and ravines of beach ball legend are very carefully crafted.
In other words, you probably wouldn't have this much fun if you went outside and hit beach balls at a local park. You'd need a Beach Ballin' Certified park constructed by a beach ball architect.
This is also the reason why there is no beach ball beach. (as mentioned in the early access notes) A beach is a pretty bad place for beach balls. However, there's probably a way to do a beach with the appropriate wind conditions palm tree alignment and sand dune & rock formations that would be pleasing. Also, beaches often have lots of prickly pesky crabs who could instantly pinch your toes and ruin your day.
Long story short, the groundwork is in place for rapid expansion and iteration. We're going to be doing that, but we're also not going to release something that's half baked (or inflated).
ps: if you haven't read the manual, you probably should. It's got a bunch of command keys for you to play with your friends.