Kind of on the same side of you here... hard to say exactly which one. I
think public is okay, provided it's clear that not all suggestions will be
put in unless it's possible. On the other hand, private is like you said,
something t help the element of surprise. Personally, I'd go for public
because I like comunity feedback. But that's just me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Bennefall" <phi...@blastbay.com>
To: "A public mailing list for Blastbay Studios." <t...@blastbay.com>
Cc: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 3:33 PM
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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