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How should a lurker recruit playtesters?

Playtest Beta Scripted Beta

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Poll: How should a lurker recruit playtesters?

I've made an 80% finished beta of a script-heavy quest, which strategies are best for seeking playtesters?

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#1 Mitsukara

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Posted 09 May 2016 - 08:22 PM

Here's a screenshot to make this less boring:

UCHWSN5.png

 

Okay, I searched around the main site for information about playtesting, but didn't find relevant information, so I apologize if there's a standard method for this and I overlooked it.

 

TL;DR: I don't talk to people much at all, I've made an 80% (or so) completed long quest with a lot of new scripts, and tested on my own a lot, but think I should have more people playtest and bugtest before I eventually release it and don't know how to go about recruiting. The poll shows most of the possibilities I could think of.

 

I have a quest I've been working on steadily for about a year plus (plus being bits of scripts I've messed with/developed myself since about 2012). It has a finished overworld, a mostly-finished second overworld, and 13 completed dungeons out of a planned 18 (the largest dungeon so far is a full 8x8, and the first four are only about 20 rooms).  And a loooooot of newly scripted content, like, 36 B Button item slots and almost all of them are newly scripted items, and a character switching mechanic, and a bunch of new enemies and bosses.

 

The quest mostly focuses on item puzzles and custom enemies, with very little story, only a couple of cut scenes. For scripting, I reinvented the wheel and didn't really use anyone's stuff, because it was interesting to self-teach and confusing to learn other people's stuff. I asked the venerable quest maker Moosh for advice once, and then hid under a rock for over a year instead of following up, for no good reason. A forum member called Justin told me how to use for loops once, which was extremely helpful.

 

I've tested everything myself (repeatedly) to see what works, and I think it all works okay up until the fairly late parts of the game that I haven't made yet, but I'm not confident in my ability to catch everything, or to make fun design choices, so I'd be very interested in getting some playtesting help.

 

However, I'm not too sure about stopping to refine my project into a coherent demo- a tidy package that ends at some clear point, excludes spoilery stuff like late-game content/avoids leaking 80% of the entire game, and teases the audience into further interest, etc. I'd much rather just gradually continue my march through beta stages of the quest than try to organize a proper demo like that.

 

Nor am I sure how best to make use of the Quest Project feed. I have started setting up a hidden project experimentally, but I don't know how people feel about rough 80% done betas being openly posted, or how people feel about playing them.

 

Nor am I sure about how serious of a thing "leaks" are; I'm not super worried about people seeing the unfinished quest, but I know if I'd be killing enthusiasm for the final product with a mostly-finished version, and I don't know if stealing is a particularly likely thing or what the standard precautions would be, or generally what best practices would be.

 

But basically, the thing is, I've been doing all this hiding under a rock, barely coming to PureZC or anywhere else to talk about my project. I have relatively few friends I keep in touch with at all, and I tend to socially vanish for long periods of time. So, what would be the best means of recruiting playtesters for my project? And is it important to make a refined demo, rather than just sharing my as-is beta that hits an abrupt cliff of unfinished content?

 

(Any playtesters will be credited, unless they ask not to be.)


Edited by Mitsukara, 09 May 2016 - 08:31 PM.

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#2 Anthus

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Posted 09 May 2016 - 09:03 PM

It sounds like you have a massive project here, and it sounds really neat. It's cool that you self taught yourself all that stuff. I'm just curious: Is the entire game a sidescroller?

 

Now onto the topic at hand. If you want to get play testing help, but don't want to spoil the entire game or make a dedicated demo, you could use the quest project forum, and add people to the project as testers. Only these people (that you can pick) will be able to see the build, and play test it. A lot of people do this, and most big projects have at least one or two play-testers.  

 

Honestly, I don't think you have to worry much about leaks. That kind of stuff has never really been a problem on PureZC, iirc. That is, I've never heard of a case where a tester released ot stole someone's quest. I think most of the community would have enough respect for the creator that if something like that happened, they wouldn't jump all over it, and play it prematurely.

 

As far as actually recruiting, I'd say make a thread in Custom Quest Discussion, and simply ask if people are interested in testing it. Show some screens, and get people interested. You don't have to go super in depth about the game, or the story, but you want to post enough to get people thinking. "hey, sure, I'll test it".

 

With such a large project though, it is also important to find testers who are willing to commit to the duration of he project.

 

EDIT: voted for the last two options.



#3 trudatman

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Posted 09 May 2016 - 09:40 PM

I voted for the last real option there, but so much of the rest is real, too. finding people willing to go all in is tough. is there text? you want an editor. is there an obvious path? you'll want people who look to break the sequencing and poke around the edges. is it long? you'll want people with time and resources available. is it hard? you'll need a crew with mad skills to overcome the challenges. you might as well give more screenshots, a full description, start a project page, put out a demo... kind of go all in and share it. I think the keys to betatesting involve being thorough, so if lots of volunteers step forward, look to those able to communicate clearly, those who seem to stick with their projects, those that reply to replies. how much time would a thorough tester need? like, I KNOW I'm a good tester if the game isn't too hard or tedious, but I tend to give HUGE lists of corrections, suggestions, comments, critiques, criticisms, queries....if it's an eleven-hour gaming experience JUST TO COMPLETE the thing, "fuck you, pay me!" some people live for "credit" in the texts, others just want you to get the thing as polished as possible, finding the issues you don't notice/locate on your own. so many factors are at play. do you need somebody who can collaborate and design tiles/sprites and tweak scripts? do you just want somebody to tell you what seems broken and what stuff they like? (sometimes even that level of testing offends gamemakers, but those folks aren't the ones that usually make it to having anything 80% completed.) if you aren't too worried about people getting familiar with it through open discussion, just go for it in any way possible. if you want a big reveal, don't so much worry about "leaks," but maybe try to recruit a solid team over a few weeks and keep the discussions private. there are so many factors. good luck!

#4 Avaro

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 05:19 AM

Hello! I'd say showcase a few more screens of your project, either on a thread in the forums or in the quest project section and then just ask for beta testers. You don't have to make a demo, but it would be nice. How about a video clip showcasing a bit of gameplay of your quest? I fully agree with what Anthus said here.

 

I also don't think there's a wrong way to recruit playtesters. As for me, I'm interested in an estimated playtime of your quest. If it's not too big and/or too challenging I'm willing to help ya.



#5 Mitsukara

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 09:41 AM

It sounds like you have a massive project here, and it sounds really neat. It's cool that you self taught yourself all that stuff. I'm just curious: Is the entire game a sidescroller?

It's about half sidescroller, half overhead. As far as self teaching, I relied mostly on the Shardstorm ZCWiki untli I found www.purezc.net/zsdocs/ , and checking some stuff in STD_CONSTANTS.

 

is there text? you want an editor.

 

Actually, now that I think of it, I don't really need help with the text I think. It's very light on dialogue and story, and almost every NPC uses single-line dialogue.

 


is there an obvious path? you'll want people who look to break the sequencing and poke around the edges. is it long?

 

There's a group of four dungeons to do in any order, then another group of four, then one you have to do, one you have to do, then a group of seven in any order, and finally the last one. (But the last five dungeons aren't done yet, just the first 13). It's kind of a "double quest", because you do nine dungeons in one 16x8 overworld and then go to the other one (which is actually 13x12, so it's part of two maps) for the other nine. The smallest four dungeons are about 20 screens each, and the biggest one I've made yet is basically a filled 8x8, though some of those screens are very simple.

 


is it hard?

 

I'm actually trying not to make it terribly hard, but the puzzles might be a little confusing. And I might make it too hard by mistake.

 


how much time would a thorough tester need?

 



As for me, I'm interested in an estimated playtime of your quest. If it's not too big and/or too challenging I'm willing to help ya.

 

Hmmmm. Well, I know exactly what to do and I can play through everything I've made in a day if I focus on it, but.... yyeah. Probably takes a few hours, even though there's no cutscenes, just because there's so much stuff to run around doing.

 

I can't estimate very well since I haven't properly timed myself, but here goes with guessing:

 

The quest layout goes like this:

- Explore half of a 16x8 overworld, complete 4 small (20ish room) dungeons in any order

--- (takes me less than 3 hours I think, but I know exactly what to do)

- Explore other half of it, complete 4 medium (35ish room) dungeons in any order

--- (running total gets to be more like 6 hours maybe, probably don't want to be doing all this in one session)

- Level 9

--- (this is almost a full 8x8 and takes a while, with each room trying to trip you up a little bit, and I'm extra worried about the difficulty balance here. But I finished everything up through this in one day, once)

- Go to 13x12 two-partial-maps overworld, some exploration should be possible but mostly do Level 10 (most of the side stuff to do in this overworld isn't finished yet, but the map and level 10 is)

--- (This should only take about half an hour, there's a lot of ground but not much slow stuff to get hung up on)

- Unlock and complete seven dungeons in any order (only the first three of these are done)

(these should each take something more like 30 minutes? They're pretty big though, almost full 8x8s themselves, but you can run through a lot of it pretty quickly contrasted with level 9.)

- Final dungeon (not done)

 


I tend to give HUGE lists of corrections, suggestions, comments, critiques, criticisms, queries....

[...]

others just want you to get the thing as polished as possible, finding the issues you don't notice/locate on your own. so many factors are at play.

 

I'd actually really appreciate that sort of thing, I don't mind harsh criticism and I'd definitely try not to be offended at an honest answer to a question I asked. More detailed and candid information is exactly what I'm looking for.

 


do you need somebody who can collaborate and design tiles/sprites and tweak scripts?

 

While I'd be willing to try that if somebody had that much they wanted to contribute, I'm not really looking for that. I am willing to make everything myself, but not insistent on doing so.

 


if you want a big reveal, don't so much worry about "leaks,"

 

This I'm not sure about. Honestly, I'm okay telling people exactly what it is, I just don't want to be like "here's a mostly done thing, it's unpolished and sucks and playing this crappy version will make you not want to bother with the improved one".

 

That said, I think I will go ahead with a public project page that at least explains the quest better. I may also post a beta on there, maybe an open beta (but I want to think it over some more first). More screenshots will be included.

 

Fair warning, I have no idea when this quest will actually be done (I have a lot of free time, but RL can be kind of a mess), but I've been working on it pretty steadily.


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#6 Sety

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 09:42 AM

I see nothing wrong with posting a quest project. Given of course that you A) have a fair bit of content (80% sounds reasonable haha, good job figuring all that out on your own, I know I couldn't), and B) you're committed to finishing the job. You sound like you've got both of those though, so I'd say making a page is a great idea!



#7 Avaro

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 10:00 AM

I suggest avoid releasing an open beta, because of the reasons you mentioned. Better get a crew of beta testers and only send the beta to them.


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#8 Mitsukara

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 10:50 AM

I have now posted a quest project page with screenshots and info here: http://www.purezc.ne...projects&id=357

 

And an open invitation for beta testing here: http://www.purezc.ne...e=topics&id=855(I hope this is a correct use of the "dev topics" feature, I've never actually set up a project page before.)

 

 Beta Testers are invited in this update: http://www.purezc.ne...showtopic=70101

 

I won't be going full-on open beta at this time, or making a demo or video, but I am open to considering anyone who'd like to beta test, and am happy to answer questions or provide additional screenshots.


Edited by Mitsukara, 10 May 2016 - 11:57 AM.

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#9 trudatman

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 10:54 AM

yeah, but a quest that will take a week to properly test is going to be tough to gather a group for -- people will get overwhelmed, stop responding, not have the time... and then you're down to just one person really helping and that person is not likely to be able to assist in all of the ways you'd need.

so, you typed that you aren't sure when you'll finish it. the final touches are the hardest, usually. how long of a period has it been since you started? I'm guessing the rest takes about half of that.

well, anyway, good luck!

#10 Avaro

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 11:01 AM

About the dev topic, we can't see it. Dev topics are only available to the "staff" of your project, which would include beta testers. What you wanna do is a quest update.



#11 Anthus

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Posted 10 May 2016 - 11:44 AM

Avataro is right, we can't see the thread :(

 

Once you select your testers, they will be able to access the Dev topics. To make a thread public, make it an "update" like Avataro said. You should be able to just copy and paste the post, so you won't have to re-write everything. :)





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