fortuni on 20/11/2014 at 23:31
Quote Posted by Brethren
That of course depends on how many bugs you find, and how severe they are. My last FM took 2-3 weeks, I believe, and that was a bit rushed for a contest.
it will also depends on how good the beta testers are, i helped out with Endless Rain and i was a complete novice in a group of heavy weights, and even that took around 2 months, so i would suggest you ask some very experienced beta testers to join your team if you can , preferably experienced authors as they find things that novices over look, but the one thing i came to understand very quickly was that is far far better to spend the extra time and get it right, than to rush the beta testing and release a mission that will more than likely be condemned due to lack of beta testing
personally speaking i would be very honoured if you were to ask me to join your beta testing team.....grovel grovel ,beg beg....:D
SneakyGuy101 on 21/11/2014 at 00:00
Of course I'd let you join the Beta testing. The mission definitely isn't as big and confusing as "Endless Rain" :laff: It will be a bit Nonlinear in areas but it definitely isn't too confusing :p
Tannar on 21/11/2014 at 00:28
I've been testing extensively for many years and I've seen tests that lasted a couple of weeks and some that went well over a year. It really depends upon the nature of the problems you find and what your goals are as the author. For a contest mission with no major problems that are difficult to fix, I would expect about 2-3 weeks. For a much larger or more complex mission, it could easily stretch into a few months. But many are done sooner. There is really no way to know for sure until the time comes.
And I agree that you need to have at least one experienced tester in your testing group. In your case, it would also help to have at least one experienced tester who is familiar with testing Thief Gold missions, because it is a bit different than testing T2 missions.
nickie on 21/11/2014 at 07:56
You've had offers from experienced testers in this thread, including a TG author, which is great, and also someone wanting to have a go which is also good. It can take a while to get the hang of testing and if people don't try it a few times, they won't know whether it's something they want to do or not. It can be hard work and occasionally tedious.
There's an excellent (
http://shalebridgecradle.co.uk/testing/faq.php#f30) section for authors at shalebridgecradle - it's well worth your time reading.
My tips: make sure all difficulties are tested and anything that is fixed in a test needs testing again to make sure it works and hasn't broken something else. it's always worth getting the release version tested too as sometimes there are last-minute glitches or things accidentally get left out of the zip. And if you can crack a few jokes during the test, then that's a bonus. :)
fortuni on 21/11/2014 at 08:59
Quote Posted by nickie
And if you can crack a few jokes during the test, then that's a bonus
:laff: something tells me that working with Sneakie may just be a barrel of laughs :laff:
SneakyGuy101 on 21/11/2014 at 12:10
Quote Posted by fortuni
:laff: something tells me that working with Sneakie may just be a barrel of laughs :laff:
:sly: Probably :joke:
