Who do you get to test your games?

Hello.

In the past I've always thrown demos and stuff around in the Blitz community to get feedback etc. All the people that have tested my games before, have been Blitz programmers themselves and I've always found that to be a little counter-productive. They generally pick fault where there is no fault (no offence!) - seems they'd rather offer you different ways of doing things no matter how ridiculous, rather than evaluating the way the job has already been done.

Anyhow...

Got Blitzmax recently and started playing around with an idea I've had for about the last six months or so. I've got a working prototype now, and decided to test it out on some people who are more likely to actually play games rather than write them. The feedback I got was very encouraging and much more useful than some of the nonsense thats been presented to me in the past.

Can you really trust the opinions of people here when it comes to feedback for your games? If not, who would/do you turn to?

Sometimes you do get poor feedback here but you also get good feedback. Usually, it's a case of the blind leading the blind here in the Blitz community when it comes to some of the issues you mention.

When it comes down to just the game though I think all opinions are valid. Most people here are more into making games rather than playing them though so everything's slanted in that direction.

Before I post on Blitz and Indiegamer (and you have to ignore the opinions of trolls, but otherwise listen to everyone really) I get the following to test (in no particular order):

Me
My partner, Helen
Couple of forum friends.
Good friend, Charles
Charle's mum.
Ex. Colleague Andrew
Ex. Employees in office (x2)
Mum
My 5 year old son.
Anyone else I can actually watch play it.

Worth nothing that on these forums, lots of people have valid feedback, but also people are really nice, maybe too nice (perhaps because a good game stands out as ... well ... good), whereas on Indiegamer they are much more critical as they compare your game with other totally pro big-team, high-budget games so it can be a bit deflating on there. Also you can try CodersWorkshop, but generally not may people reply (to puzzle games anyway) and when they do it's normally a one-liner saying "nice!" or something.

Of course this is all just my personal experience, hope it helps.

The best indication for me has actually been the kids I do the career shadowing with. So any young people you can get will usually give you a fair indication of how well the game will be received. They don't tolerate crappy games.

depends who your market is. Judging by the pap that shifts in bucketloads on portals, many buyers are less discerning than your average teenager.

On the whole, I got very good feedback from the Blitz community regards the demo I released last month. I experienced a slight temptation to respond snarkily once or twice (after all, Tank Universal's my baby - how dare they criticise!), but I got a good range of advice and that by remaining fairly neutral I think.

In fact, from TU and another commercial project I'm working on, it's heighlighted to me that ;
a, assumptions I'm comfortable with (as author) are often not understood by the user
b, it's a bellcurve of user acceptance/ability. There's a range of central opinions to shoot for - then there's the more far out opinions where the user is either a very dim bulb, innately unreasonable or of an 'odd' mental disposition.

I generally think that the problem with getting feedback on these forums, (and coders workshop and a few others) is that many people are too easy on our games. I can say for myself I wouldn't feel happy paying for any of the games I create myself (and a lot of the ones that small hobbyist developers create). An example I've given before are games like Medieval Total War or Quake 3 - I can get them for $10 Australian (about $7.50 US) from local game shops so I think it is rather poor form to ask for $20 US for a game (speaking generally here - no specific titles/developers in mind) that in no way comes even close to those sorts of games in terms of polish, quality and gameplay.

If you want to get honest opinions about your games I would give it to people to play who don't know you've made it and see how long it holds their attention.

I agree with matty... just send people this "neat game demo you just got" and then ask them what they thought... and consider running a real beta-test.

as in... pay people to take a long deep look into your game.

Game testing, is almost as hard as making the game (assuming you are making the game by working with a big team... not doing it all yourself) It is like any other job, is what I mean. It requires training and talent to do well.

This is why there are a few school offering training JUST in game testing.



The beta testing you typically see being released to the public are more like... glorified PR mixed with a demo that gives the people who test the game a feeling like they mattered...

They will likely only catch the few small bugs that come out due to random odd system configurations and such.... by the time you get that kind of beta... the game is mostly done... the content might not be... but the engine and nearly all the assest are done and will change very little.

All public beta testing done by the big companys are mainly a way to promote the game and get those last few odd bugs out. They are not real beta testing. Real testing will require the players to write long papers on the game... What was fun, what didn't work for them, bugs in the system and other problems.

MTW or DOOM 3? I'll take a game of Hole in one anyday.

Oh and by the way, beta software is supposed to be feature complete.

did I say it wasn't?

I think the more feedback you get, the better your chance of success.

Sometimes people will be a bit too picky because being a programmer they can write something similar - or are perhaps just a little bit envious. The reverse can be true though because a programmer will realise how difficult your project was to complete so will go easy on you. You just have to ask yourself does this person have a good point? Think it through and remember it's nothing personal - however negative the response seems.

Remember though, if somebody here picks a possible problem then somebody who plays the game when it's released might agree. I certainly wouldn't just post a demo only on this site though. I found it's important is to get a casual gamer as well as a programmer to test because they seem more impartial - they just take the game at face value and ask different questions.

my #1 tester is myself.

I like to post here for feedback but most people lose interest after two builds.. no offence. They try the first demo, think it's great, and move on. No testing, just some playing. There are exceptions but that's it.
I now go to a forum dedicated to- or someone I know who is a fan or fond of - the type of game I am creating. I get much more productive feedback thay way. So my advice is, find your audience (PREFERABLY NON CODERS) and get them to play it.

The larger companies I worked with had a dedicated testing team, and 3-4 people for a couple of weeks over the holidays. The core testing team would spend 10,000 hour playing the same game again and again over extended periods. Was pretty crazy stuff.

I find the worst people to have test your games are friends and family, who most of the time like you make you feel good. Kind of like showing your gran a drawing od some pretty flowers or something. They will usualy love it and say how talented you are regardless of whether theres anything interesting there or not.

I just watch people test it without saying anything but I ask them to talk allowed about if things annoy them or are good etc.