when to call for playtesters?

[Little Sicily]

Well, except for the occasional disaster, my first scenario seems to be coming along fairly nicely, with most of the rules, labels and events already in place. With the possible exception of game.txt (too big for notepad), the graphics are going to be the most daunting task. This raises an issue of timing.

If I save the graphics for last I can have a "skeleton" version of the scenario available for playtesting much sooner, but what do people look for when they volunteer? Do most playtesters look for the new graphics and sounds and take gameplay as a second impression or are they more interested in the framework and new concepts? Historical accuracy isn't a factor in my scenario so I'm not worried about that. Basically, how polished should a game be before the call is put out for playtesters?

Opinions?

 

[SunTzu]

You want to ask for playtesters when you've got the BETA version of your scenario done and you want someone(people) to play it before you release it and tell you what you can do to make it better and if theres any bugs in it. I specialize in WW1 and WW2 scenarios so if its any send it to me to playtest any historical scenario i will playtest actually
Hope this helps
Peace!

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[kobayashi]

I agree with Sun Tzu, the time to get play testers is when you finish the whole scenario in its entirety and want to get others to verify that there are no bugs or balancing problems.

 

[Håkan Eriksson]

Often there is (when we talk about "big" games) a Alfa version befre the beta version. If you like you could ask one ore two persons to be Alfa-testers and later on you could relese it for the beta-testers.

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[Little Sicily]

Sorry, Sun Tzu, I can't offer up a historical scenario this time, but I do have some planned. The one I'm doing right now is based on a game called Legend of the Five Rings. I'll post a full description when the beta is ready, but for now I'll just say it's a mythical Japan scenario set in the fictional empire of Rokugan. It calls for a lot of new graphics, and I'm only just getting started with Paint Shop so I don't know how long it will take for me to get it all done. I like the idea of an alpha playtest and may try that with some substitute graphics culled from other scenarios. Thanks for the suggestions!