Beta Testing in Episodes?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

I'm currently working on my first TADS game, and learning quite a bit
along the way. My problem is feeling like I'm in a vacuum the whole
time, never seeing the end of this thing. I'm probably almost a
quarter of the way through, although I know I'll have to go back and
revise quite a bit of this first part because I've probably made every
error there is to make along the way.

I'd like to know if anyone has presented their game for beta-testing
in episodes, so as to get feedback along the way? I think that if I
got this feedback, this could help in getting the entire game actually
composed.

My game is inspired by the movie, Kwaidan, Lufcadio Hearn (who studied
Japanese folklore and then wrote original classic ghost stories that
are well known in Japan), as well as later incarnations of the
Japanese horror story such as Ringu (American The Ring), Ju-on, and
Dark Water (a movie made from Koji Suzuki's book, writer of the
original Ring). My interest in this type of genre is to create a
horror story that captures the atmosphere of these ghost stories. One
difference between western horror and these Japanese stories, is that
the plot in the Japanese stories oftentimes does not have a clearly
explained denouement; loose ends are not always fully understood. The
stories take on a bit of a surreal quality. Unlike many American
horror stories, the ghost is not vanquished in the hotel explosion,
the last vampire is not staked, the supernatural force is not cleanly
explained away using the scientific method, and evil cannot always be
conquered or satiated with a clever unraveling of the mystery. The
stories, in Japan, end up being a bit more unnerving. I've also turned
to some western writers and tried to adopt some of their tricks,
namely Algernon Blackwood, Shirley Jackson, and Poe. The game takes
place in Heian-era Japan around 1000AD.

If anyone thinks this is a good idea, to serve out sections of the
game for beta-testing as the game is being built, and wants to help
give feedback, let me know. And if anyone thinks this is a poor idea,
let me know that too. I'm interested in knowing what the forum thinks
of this.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

If the story lends itself to episodic storytelling, then I'd say
that it'd be a great idea to beta-test it that way. A couple of
problems I can see happening would be: beta testers for later
"episodes" might need some background from previous "episodes", or
findings from testing a particular episode might affect the way that
other episodes are handled (making it hard to test multiple episodes at
once).

This sort of brings to light a question I had. I'm working on
creating a game myself and plan on having it be handled in "chapters"
(divisions of the story which are sequential but may have different
starts/ends depending on what the user has done). I was wondering just
how interested people would be in playing a game divided like that, or
if they'd feel too constrained by the reference to novels. Would you,
if you were playing, feel like it detracted from the idea of a "living
world"?

- Paul

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

kalieskrima2004@yahoo.com (QP Bauer) wrote in message news:<3283486a.0404101710.104fb5ae@posting.google.com>...
<snip>
>
> If anyone thinks this is a good idea, to serve out sections of the
> game for beta-testing as the game is being built, and wants to help
> give feedback, let me know. And if anyone thinks this is a poor idea,
> let me know that too. I'm interested in knowing what the forum thinks
> of this.

Hey, AFAIC you're obviously more than welcome to post this here, but
you may also want to post it to rec.arts.int-fiction as you may find
more feedback on writing there. (Unless you cross-posted and I missed
it, in which case ingore this, ingore me doing this.)

Cheers.