March 25 (Motivation)

Another week down. Here's what's been happening over at Fanatical Games.

I setup the first "official" multiplayer test of the game this weekend and got exactly 0 folks to participate. Disappointing. Keeping the testers motivated is really becoming a problem. Some have signed up to test, got accepted and I've never heard from them again. Others signed up, offered some preliminary feedback and then dropped of the radar.

The lack of participation is really hindering the game in more ways than one. For starters, winning the MyDreamRPG contest depends on community response to the game (including feedback from testers). Not having much of a response other than a few signups is a problem. Secondly, the game just isn't being sufficiently tested and I can't (and won't) start the push to final release until I feel confident Bit Battles is bug-free. And perhaps most importantly, seeing the testers go MIA really makes it hard to keep myself motivated now that the "fun" part of development is over.

At the moment I don't have any ideas on how to address this problem. Jay Barnson of Rampant Games is using a staggered testing approach where small groups of testers are given access to the alpha at certain intervals. Rotating different groups of testers in is advantageous because it means you get fresh feedback about the game and it keeps everyone excited as they wait for their next turn to play. It works well when you have enough people to fill multiple testing groups but unfortunately for me, I just don't.

If you have any ideas, feel free to comment.