Testing / Prototyping Games

[Sinzygy]

Since I created / started on a new game last week and am nearing completion of the first stage, I wanted to ask how other game devs go about testing / prototyping games?

Usually I set the game up on the internet and tell some of my friends to drop by and have a look and tell me what they think of it, but sadly most aren't interested in games (anymore). So I'm always in need of some in-depth feedback from players.
And if I open the game to the public, i.e. advertise a bit, I get around 100 players and then all start to complain and everyone wants to change something, which again leads to no useable feedback because all think it's the "wishing-round" of game development.

Should I just run the game and make small changes as soon as they appear and then make some big resets to introduce new features?

Oh well, any input is appreciated.

- Sinzygy

[dvd871]

I've had the same thing happen.  The way I did it was to open the site to the public but only to about 20 - 30 players.  Hopefully a few of them are players from other games that I run or have played.  Then everywhere on the site you have to put in huge font:  THIS IS A BETA TEST!  lol!  You will still get the complaints and the wishful thinkers, just less of them I guess.

[Zeggy]

Myself, I uploaded the game as soon as any part was possible to play. Then as I added new features I would upload them, etc.
I Have to say though, this must be one of the worst ways of doing this. There were frequent game resets because the economy ran out of control, or because players got way too large of an advantage, so of course, players get angry and they leave. I did get a hell of a lot of suggestions and bug reports though, I had a few really dedicated players who would brainstorm just about everything for me XD

I think a better way of doing it might be to run two separate games. One with stable features and that does not change at all during the round, and another one with all the latest new features and bugs that is constantly updated.
The first one should be open to the public, and the second test game can also be public if you want it to be. Make sure that players understand what the second game is for, and encourage them only to join if they want to help test new features and report bugs. Then at the end of the round move all the well-tested features into the stable game.

[Sinzygy]

mmm branching sounds nice B)

Haven't thought of this. Hmm... I'm gonna go and do it this way.
We'll see how this turns out.

- Sinzygy

[Shapulin]

Send invitations to some hardcore gamers of others of yo games(i hope you got some mail of them), and deputize them as "UNIVERSE TESTER" if they accept the mission.
Also, explaine the "BETA VERSION" well and when the testing stage is complete, promise them some prize in theire current universe game. something like extra resources, or a fleet, or an army for free after the testing no matter if they win or not in the new universe. But if they log in 3 times in a week or something like that.
also give them 10 invitations to give to some of theire friends.

That way you will got an little army of especialized testers.

Even you can make a new forum of "BBG tester force" and that way you can unite forces with others developers of bbg's

 B)

[Wakish]

The idea of a bonus/prize seems a more motivating factor I think..

[Chris]

I have start a test round with a few friends. They did not consider this "a game", so if they lost half of their units in the middle they would patiently report it. It's just naming convention, tell them that we are not "having fun by playing the game" but "having fun by making the game"

[RangerSheck]

I started with a few friends, but I had the same problem - most of them don't have time to get into it - or they like their RPGs the 3D way. I was part of a pretty large Everquest emulated server community for a while, so I asked for testers within that community and got a maybe 20-30 testers that way. It was a good start and helped me work out early bugs and design issues. More recently, I started poking at BBG boards (which seem to be full of developers who don't really have time to play your game ) and eventually decided to spend a little on advertising. Now I have frequent new players and a small number of dedicated players who are great at giving feedback - those people who really like the game but know that it's still in development are a great asset and they keep me motivated.

I too have tried to make sure that people know the game is alpha. I'd like to graduate it to beta, but it feels like there will be additional features always coming down the road - like any online game, continuous development is the norm. I'm trying to decide at what point I stop hiding behind "alpha" and just say it's forever in development. I think Flickr made the point rather slyly by going from alpha to beta to gamma.

[Dasein Fiasco]

If anyone is ever interested, I?ll volunteer for a good faith testing exchange. Testing exchange meaning ?you test my game, I?ll test yours?, good faith meaning we?ll take the testing as seriously as we would our own game, and try to provide useful feedback.

We developers might not have enough time to actively play other games and offer balance suggestions, but we're familiar with the pitfalls of web development and have a unique ability in knowing where to look for broken code and incorrect business logic. So think of it more as a smoke test than a play test.

[truegamepimp]

just try and get ppl off here 2 review 4 u