we really wanted to try out alpha stagger, so we 3D printed a plate and handwired it. it's ugly underneath, but it types nice.
according to some folks on the 40% server, "alpha" stagger goes back to the original 28-key Alpha (2018). notably two rows in line with each other and a third offset by half a key, a modification of the Gherkin. but half ortho. hortho.
generally, we're not interested in layouts other than ortho or column stagger, but there were a few people that swore it was comfier than ortho. we were intrigued enough to try it. and it was great actually? sure yeah our fingers missed keys a lot, but getting the hang of it was not hard. we don't know why this works so well. switching back and forth wasn't too hard either, like this didn't seem like it would wreck our muscle memory.
so hey, maybe an alpha 40 is in the cards someday. we might 3D print a case for this soon.
(alpha keycaps are by us, they're dyesub pen on DSA blanks, and there's some Astrolokeys and one Magic Girl)