Y’know, after working on a hack for over a year, you get kinda tired of testing it, right? Especially the first 4 chapters. Got any ideas to make it a bit more interesting, while still effectively testing the hack for balancing and such?
Edit: The hack in question is here.
I like to change up my strategy DRASTICALLY when doing repeat tests, even go so far as to do seemingly suboptimal strategies and see if they work or not
Just let other people play test it
Playtest it in segments that autolevel chars for a specific chapter. Eg. you have a debug option to start at chapter 5 and play using that party to chapter 10. I exclusively playtested like this for pokemblem while in development and didn’t do a full playthrough until the game was completable. I then did a full run at least a dozen times, aiming to speedrun, to experience different teams, and to try out some challenge runs.
There are definitely some things I could’ve done better in my fangame, but I think it’s inefficient to always start your runs from the beginning of the game, so I recommend not doing that. Full runs are best saved for when you’re nearly [complete].
Run through each chapter twice (or at most three times), a month apart. Give a chance to go back to it with fresh eyes. The first time you run the chapter, don’t reset every time you plan to make a change, but move and cut things on the fly with the debugger if it becomes apparent they should be moved and cut. The second time, ironman it. That tends to really quickly clarify what is hard vs. what is bullshit.
I kinda test my games once and ship it lol.
Like I of course test a chapter multiple times while building it but I dunno, I am open to updates tho. Like it someone Playtests my game and gives me feedback, I usually put it into place.
I agree partially, but the thing is, other people don’t have the same vision as myself. I have my own biases an’ views about how I want the hack to be, that others just don’t have. Other input is nice, but I wouldn’t solely rely on it. I’m sure that’s not exactly what you’re saying, but yeah.
Besides, with FEE3 coming soon(ish), playtesting isn’t easy to find 'round here at the moment.
Yeah, but adjusting your vision can be valuable too. Like stay true to yourself, but you can get Tunnelvision not seeing mistakes that you ignore due to knowing the game better than anyone else in existence.
Just release it untested. Call all the bugs features.
-Todd
But actually, having someone else play it is most likely the best bet. But if you can’t do that just take a break or just keep a savestate of later chapters so you don’t have to replay early game over and over.
That’s part of taking Feedback. It’s kind of it’s own skill. Knowing when the suggestion is not within your vision and when it’s something you’re getting tunnel vision on.
Since I’m nearly done with the project, I can’t skip chapters so in case there’s any game breaking bugs that might’ve emerged.
Too true. I’ll see if I can do a little more work in getting other people to try it out.
i’ll try a lil of it out
I agree partially, but the thing is, other people don’t have the same vision as myself. I have my own biases an’ views about how I want the hack to be, that others just don’t have.
Mate, this is literally exactly why outside feedback is so useful, even leaving aside the concern of playtesting burnout which it also massively alleviates. Don’t just accept every suggestion you hear, and when people are just venting shrilly of course you can write them off, but it costs you nothing to at least consider feedback made in good faith.
i’ve never playtested before, but id love to try
Taking and considering feedback ain’t my problem with outside help, playtester feedback has helped immensely let me tell you, as creators we have blind spots.
It’s that deciding what I think would “benefit” or “compromise” my vision is a lot to consider for me personally. Perhaps my response wasn’t clear on that.
if you havent already, do different types of runs that people are likely to play once the hack is released! do 0% (this one is especially important to ensure rng doesnt fuck the player too bad). do an ironman. route an efficiency run. draft an arbitrary quarter of the cast and play with only them. its important to get a feel for how these play to gauge the appeal of your game to different swathes of players, and it also helps spice up playtesting