Homebrew Quality Assurance?

[godzillajoe]

Who usually does this?

 

The programmer?

 

As someone who does it for a living, can I offer my services as a tester for any future homebrews if anyone is interested.

 

I love finding bugs and breaking stuff and making developers cry.

[djmips]

Friends, family, if the game is public on AtariAge, like they often are, then a cadre of AA members.

 

BLiP football was tested by Rick Weis, me, my family and Bob Montgomery.

 

I was the main tester, and it helped that I put the game down for a couple of months and then came back with a fresh set of eyes.

 

I could have used a dedicated outside tester however, and next time I'll either develop in the open (AA) or get some testers such as yourself.

[+SpiceWare]

I tested Medieval Mayhem.

 

Had a few games with friends, such as keilbaca.

 

Got lots of feedback from the builds posted here. As thanks, those people are listed somewhere in the game

[mos6507]

I think games that are not getting regular feedback are under highest risk of disappointment. (Think of stuff like Yars' Return on Flashback 2.) You need a fairly wide range of playtesters.

[+batari]

next time I'll either develop in the open (AA) or get some testers such as yourself.

Developing in the open does give more feedback, even though feedback often entails never-ending suggestions for improvement. This isn't necessarily bad, as they can make a game better. But they also increase the programmer's workload, sometimes overwhelming the programmer to the point that the game will get postponed indefinitely.

[+SpiceWare]

Very true - I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the end "where were these suggestions 2 months ago!?!?"

 

The later suggestions did add a lot of polish - like the initial knight suggestion by espire8 then the shimmering knight suggestion by Nathan.

 

The problem with trying to do the last-minute suggestions was they often broke things - like the jitter bug that was introduced into DEMO mode.