Hi,
my personal opinion is go public.
I rather liked Tom Ward's betas and I am willing to get the game, once it is
out as a final version.
If there are a few beta releases, people can see a game grow, when you put
it more together per release.
I can't know how much work you have left on actual content or if you only
want testing for finding bugs and improve stability, but either way you have
something in your hand (the user) which you can then await and eventually
help the developer with...
Again: I'd say that you should go public.
Regards,
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Bennefall" <[email protected]>
To: "A public mailing list for Blastbay Studios." <[email protected]>
Cc: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 12:33 AM
Subject: [Audyssey] Public betas vs private testing
Hi all,
I just wanted to put a question out. What are your opinions of private
testing with a dedicated team versus publicly released betas that everyone
can try out? I have a new game in development now, and I am considering
whether to make a public beta available similar to what Thomas Ward and
Jason Alan have done. I see some pros and cons with private testing,
though:
Pros:
1. Easier to manage. Since you have only a few people who are testing the
game you do not need to answer the same questions or receive the same bug
reports numerous times.
2. The element of surprise. With a private team, very few people know
about the development and so it comes as more of a nice surprise when
something new is released, where as in the case when everyone knows pretty
much everything that is going on it's hardly unexpected when a game
finally is released. In the worst case, some people may even have gotten
tired of the game after playing the betas!
Cons:
1. Limited testing=more possible bugs. If you have a smaller team you are
not as likely to catch every single bug before the product goes to
release. This can result in some pretty rapid patch releases (1.0.1,
1.0.2, 1.1, etc) right after 1.0 has been put out and this obviously
doesn't look too good.
2. Nagging. If everyone knows about the game while it is being developed,
I fear that some people would be sending emails asking when the next
version is out or wanting to know why this or that feature that they
suggested hasn't been implemented. This is of course a very broad
generalization and I do not in any way wish to insinuate that a lot of
people do this, but there are a few cases and it might make it annoying
for the developer to see the project all the way to the end. If no one
except the private testing team knows about the game, then you will not
get any public comments before you go 1.0 and then you are obviosly
prepared to take them.
On the other hand, of course, more public suggestions means more good
possible ideas for the developer to work with. Thoughts, anyone?
Kind regards,
Philip Bennefall
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