GRETGOR'S PROFILE

Hi, everyone! I'm in need of some insight and advice.

Back when I was younger, and made a few (lackluster) games, I didn't understand how important test playing was, not only for finding bugs, but also to discover whether our game was engaging enough, how people experience it, etcetera. Recently, I've come to realize (not on my own, obviously) that testing is an essential part of solid game design, and that it's naive to think I'd be able to output something good unless I could get subjective feedback from test players.

The problem is: I'm a very shy person and not very gregarious, so I really don't have what it takes to convince people I barely know to test play my games as I watch them. I thought I'd simply ask family members and loved ones to take a look at what I've made and give me their feedback, which is a flawed testing method.

The obvious problems with that are:

• They are obviously going to be biased, since they are close to me.

• They're probably gonna force themselves to get into the game, since I'm explicitly asking them to take a look.

I thought I'd simply tell them to "take a look at this game I found" instead of saying it's my game, which would get rid of problem #1, but not problem #2, because they'd be expecting something great, since I told them to take a look at a specific game.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Is there any way to make test plays from loved ones as unbiased as possible? If not, is there any way a shy, introverted fellow such as myself could get other people to give him feedback?

Thanks in advance!

Wow Jude, that looks awesome. Is it only auto-combat, or is it gonna be a TBS-like thing?

Looks good!

EDIT: Now that I played it, I can say for sure that it is absolutely amazing. The atmosphere set by the minimalism and the "zen" music is perfectly fitting for the puzzle theme, and the feature rich gameplay mechanics are great for the creation of great puzzle challenges, which this game has plenty of.

I also like the non-linear "overworld", in which you can pick from many different puzzles to solve at a time, and add a little bit of "exploration material" into the mix. Another thing I like is how the game doesn't force you to play all levels, instead making the player able to choose what pills you're gonna try to get to reach the end of the demo, while still giving the player the option to play all levels if they so wish.

I love the sheer variety of gameplay mechanics: permanent buttons, hold-down buttons, crates, rolling stones (heh), the teleport pads (that can also transport stones), the "dice" block things, the dots that you can't step on twice, all that stuff makes for some nice puzzle challenges. None of them were overboard with difficulty in my experience, but they were just nice enough that they made me want more.

Mind if I steal some of these ideas to use on my super secret project?

EDIT 2: given how seriously the word "stealing" is taken in here, I'd like to make it clear that I'm just kidding, and I won't use something that's not mine without authorization.

Looks epic! Will be checking it out!

Ohhhhh

I'm an idiot, should have tried that earlier ^_^'

Thanks!

EDIT: Yes, it worked.