BEW - Ongoing Dev Thread (DAZ Artists Still Wanted)

[Wolfschadowe]

I love this about your work. It's one of the things that makes it really stand out.

Thanks Tlaero!

I didn't even notice the tweaks until the third or fourth playthrough.

I'm just glad the game is worth three or four playthroughs! Or, really, anything beyond one. Thanks for playing SYH!

Wolfschadowe

[ExLibris]

As for your talk about burn out, I would suggest that you roll through your play testers ( from the sounds of earlier posts you had a number of them ). When you are working on new sections you can stick with your regulars ( those that give you the feedback ) but every now and then when you 'release' a section I would suggest getting at least one new person to play it from scratch, make sure it all still works together.

Thanks crossy, I'm glad you enjoyed what's out there. I just brought on new playtesters for exactly the reason you pointed out, and they already found stuff that was missed by the first group. Fresh eyes make all the difference, no matter how good we are.

From a purely practical point of view, I'd actually disagree with that. Given the size of the game, each new tester is going to have to spend some time familiarizing themselves with the already tested portions so that they know how to set up the various paths for testing. That familiarization process is going to take longer and longer the further the game gets into development. Consequently, I'd suggest sticking with a core group of playtesters and replacing them as and when they decide they need a break, rather than getting a whole new group for each major version.

[Wolfschadowe]

I'd suggest sticking with a core group of playtesters and replacing them as and when they decide they need a break, rather than getting a whole new group for each major version.

There is definite value in maintaining core playtesters, which is why I don't rotate anyone out, although I will replace those that let me know they are no longer interested in playtesting for whatever reason (time, burnout, whatever.) There is also a great value in fresh eyes, but within reason. Every new playtester brings diminishing returns, and at some point the benefit of having fresh eyes goes negative.

I assume that many playtesters aren't really interested in playtesting, or even know how to playtest. They just want to see the new content early and I'm OK with that. They'll still report a broken link as they come across it, and on a game this complex, they may come across a scenario nobody else has found yet, or have an epiphany about a scene and share a different viewpoint on some comment threads, so there's still value there. I expect one in ten will be a gung-ho, hardcore playtester unless I actually employed some kind of screening process, which I don't plan to do. I was lucky enough to pick one up early in the testing (thanks ExLibris!)

Ultimately, I will limit BEW playtesting to 25 active testers, which should hopefully round out to 2-3 solid hardcore playtesters, 15 or so players who report occasional bugs, or continuity errors, and 5-10 players who find that someone else already reported the broken link they found. I know that doesn't add up to 25, but I think it's clear by now that I can't count (or spell) anyway. Ultimately, few have the time available, or want to make the commitment to be a hardcore playtester, and I fully understand that. Especially at the wage I am paying. ($0.00/hr) Although, anyone who wanted to learn solid playtesting skills could probably have the opportunity on this project.

There will be three more groups of 5 to come on board for playtesting (well one group of three and two groups of 5...that whole counting thing again) over time. One group at the end of Day 2, another for the end of 3, and the last group at the end of 4. That is a good compromise for me to have fresh eyes on the game, without too much undue overhead. Bringing more on after that would probably be unproductive because of the reasons ExLibris mentioned regarding the time taken to come up to speed on all the content. So days 5-7 will have all the same playtesters. 25 might even be too many, but that really depends more on how many hardcore playtesters we pick up

[Morgwen]

Especially at the wage I am paying. ($0.00/hr)

WHAT?

Next time I have to read the contract more carefully...

[crossy]

I have wondered this in general. With all of the games mentioned in this forum how many of the game creators (and forum members) have a background (or have careers) in game development or even more broadly in software engineering/development.

Projects such as these fascinate me as you me as you clearing need someone with artistic talent and creativity for the story and image generation. But having looked at some of the code used in games, it certainly helps to have a solid software background (even if its not your given profession).

Couldn't agree more with what you have said though and I think I said this last time, but keep your core testers, as you produce new content their feedback is likely to be better than a new/fresh tester. However, on occasion you need fresh eyes, people that have played the game up to a certain point (through parts that may have changed or that even no longer exist) will make decisions based upon these past experiences.

In my line of work when testing software we like to keep a regular set of users (normally from our target market) that we turn to. But on occasion you want to stick any old person in front of the software and see if they can work it out. This doesn't directly correlate to the subject matter at hand but its my 2 cents anyway

[tlaero]

I have wondered this in general. With all of the games mentioned in this forum how many of the game creators (and forum members) have a background (or have careers) in game development or even more broadly in software engineering/development.

I am a professional software developer. Not games though. In my past I was also a writer.

Tlaero

[sylakone2]

I have wondered this in general. With all of the games mentioned in this forum how many of the game creators (and forum members) have a background (or have careers) in game development or even more broadly in software engineering/development.

I am a professional software developer. Not games though. In my past I was also a writer.

Tlaero

I am a network administrator so get to play with scripting and lots of different applications and have lots of IT skills.
I have always been a creative person which definitely helps.

Sy

[Wolfschadowe]

Next time I have to read the contract more carefully...

Yup, you're a bargain at twice the price, and you are still making 10 times more than I am. (Note: I love multiplying by 0 )

I have wondered this in general. With all of the games mentioned in this forum how many of the game creators (and forum members) have a background (or have careers) in game development or even more broadly in software engineering/development.

I'm associated with software development, and software testing, but I'm not a developer or tester. I'm a useless manager these days. I do interact with testers, developers, analysts, and customers on a daily basis. Had some standard software development courses for my IT degree, and can generally read and follow uncommented code fairly well, sometimes better than commented code from some developers . A function's a function, a variable is a variable, and a loop's a loop in any language. Just the syntax differs. I'm definitely NOT a developer, or a tester though. I've only recently become interested in writing.

I am a network administrator so get to play with scripting and lots of different applications and have lots of IT skills.
I have always been a creative person which definitely helps.

I spent 10 years or so as a systems and network administrator, and another 5-10 before that as a PC technician and associated support before I got tricked into management. I find that those rare folks that are both technical and creative really make some of the best network administrators, troubleshooters, and developers for that matter. I've seen too many technical geniuses with little to no creativity churn out some of the most technically brilliant useless code.

Wolfschadowe

[j95]

Hello Wolfschadowe,

I would very much like to be a playtester, please.
I am extremely interested in your game, as its quality is on a par with Tlaero's games, Lesson of Passion and Pusooy games, Money Talks and the Vera Blanc games, in its realistic story and in its high quality and detailed graphics.
I look forward to when you complete the week.
I'm also looking forward to Uni Dreams, The Physio and Return to Pleasantville, which are also on this par, as are all of the games made by the members (date simulations, adventures, visual novels).

Thank you very much and best of luck with the game developing.

j95

[Wolfschadowe]

I would very much like to be a playtester, please.
I am extremely interested in your game, as its quality is on a par with Tlaero's games, Lesson of Passion and Pusooy games, Money Talks and the Vera Blanc games, in its realistic story and in its high quality and detailed graphics.
I look forward to when you complete the week.

Thank you for your kind words j95! I'm glad you enjoyed the part of the game that is available. I have added you to the playtest waitlist.

Wolfschadowe

[Danos1975]

Just heard about this game from Overanalysing AIF. Did some reading and it looks super ambitious. If you are still looking for testers I would love to help out.

[Wolfschadowe]

Just heard about this game from Overanalysing AIF. Did some reading and it looks super ambitious. If you are still looking for testers I would love to help out.

Hi Danos. I've added you to the waitlist, and it looks like you'll be part of group 5. I'm glad you're looking forward to the game.

There are only two Playtest Reserved slots remaining for group 5. There will be no group 6. although I will still add those interested to the waitlist, those will only be back-fill in the event that playtesters drop out.

Wolfschadowe.

[Aces]

Oct 4, 2013 - Released part of the office scene last weekend, and made good progress this week, after beating GTA V, of course. I have the Main Emily erotic path story-boarded through the full office scene and rendering to that storyboard is in progress. I'm also partway through story-boarding one of the alternate erotic paths through the office. Two more erotic paths to go, although a couple of them dip in and out of the main path a bit. It will be interesting to hear from playtesters after I release the full scene since it will be the first example of how the game varies based on actions within a previous scene. There are differences by scene already in the game, i.e. going to the strip club instead of the bar, and their effects on day 2, but here we will see the variations within a scene caused by what happened at the bar. We'll also start to see how the 'best' solo ending at the bar can prevent the player from being able to achieve the 'best' ending at the office. Sometimes the 'best' ending on one scene will be required to achieve the 'best' ending in a later scene, and sometimes it will prevent that and force players to a lesser path later. It depends on the situation, path, and woman. Finally, I've added a section below that describes my work process, so my progress update may make more sense. By the way, does anyone actually read this?

Yes, I read the game progress updates.

[ares]

I'd say many people are following this thread carefully. You are doing great and the periodic updates are really helpful to keep the interest

[whynot]

Bonjour Wolfshadowe,

Je reste très attentif à l'avancement du projet.
Le découpage du scénario d'avancement est très organisé.
La version 0.08 était déjà très bien.
J'imagine qu'avec tout le travail que tu fais sur la suite, cela va être grandiose !
Reçois mes meilleurs encouragements.
Bon courage et merci pour les informations en continu