intfiction.org

In SPAG 54 (http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/backissues/spag54.html#reed), Aaron Reed suggests that games be tested early in development process, recommends finding a team and agreeing to play-test one another's games, especially longer games.

I am not to the point where I have anything to play test, but I wonder if anyone has tried this. How has it gone?

Are there people that would be interested in trying this? I imagine it would be a bit tricky, since I can't imagine testing long-term a project that had zero appeal, and it might be tricky to organize, but it seems like it's worth a try.

In the few cases I've experienced (locally with Seattle IF, reading about it on Emily Short's blog, etc.) it seems to work quite well. One thing is that beta testers will come and go (I've been guilty of that a couple of times ), so it's good to plan for that somehow.

For the record, your project appeals to me and I'd be happy to test it whenever you have something to test .

Speaking more in general about organizing a group, you could just start by posting alpha builds to the IF beta testing site. It's not normally done but if you're clear about what stage the game is at I think it'd be OK. Actually that might be an interesting addition to that site if its organizer was interested, a kind of beta testing club that used the beta testing site features for organization.

Thank you! I appreciate the offer more than I can express.

Hooking into the existing beta site is a good idea - I've never posted anything there, but I have the sense that few games go away without offers (except possibly the foreign language ones).

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not quite sure what kind of features you're thinking about. Could you elaborate a bit?

For example, IFGT could also filter calls by an additional attribute of the person's profile -- maybe a group attribute. IFDB already allows group formation and administration, it'd be neat to use that somehow.

I suppose you could do it all with a mailing list, but it doesn't seem like a testing club would need a mailing list really; it seems like a testing club is a group with a little more motivation and long term obligation to accept games to test than the people already signed up to IFGT.

George, I'm not a play testing kind of guy, but I would love it if you could come on our team.
We have to set the whole thing in motion first.
Will you be committed to doing this?

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