How Do Uou Test Quests?

[ShadowTiger]

As the demo of my own quest comes near completion, I have begun to wonder. My question isn't as much about how you test it, or who you will let it test, but how you go about the entire procedure.

1) At what point do you think it deserves testing? Any specific point in your progress, or just when its finished.

2) When you test it, do you test ALL parts of the quest at once, or just warp directly to the latest part. I myself have found some interesting bugs when testing it all the way through, and you would miss these when doing the latter.

3) Do you let just anyone test, or do you select people that you trust to do it for you, or in addition to you. Is there a test that you make them take? I'm not sure that a test is a good idea, but I've only seen one situation where it was given. I personally go by credentials, although it seems I've asked all of my friends to test, I know that they're good testers anyway, so there you go.

4) How much do you let the testers test? Do you give them individual assignments? Or do you let everyone have access to a specific part of the game by configuring a special version where everyone starts off at that part of the game. (You gotta admit, it's a pretty interesting idea.)

[Petoe]

1) I always test what I have done after I have just saved in the zquest. When my quest was almost in the halfway, I decided it was a good time to "hire" some bug testers.

2) I just directly go to the new part I have just done, but after I have finished a big part, then I start from the beginning and search every place.

3) I selected my testers carefully, and I thought they were the best possible willing to test my quest, but only one of them is really working, so I really think that maybe some kind of test would have been needed then...dunno. It just isn't funny when I do shitloads of work everyday and I don't know do the testers do any testing at all. To fix this problem I'm gonna "hire" at least one more person soon...

4) Well, my testers have the acces to all the places I have done so far, and if they get stuck because of an annoying bug, they have L4 password to get anywhere they want to...

When I first started to make my new quest, I never thought I would need testing help from anyone, but because the quest is using all kinds of tricks, I noticed that when I played there were awfully alot of bugs. So I realized I need testers for this quest. And they are doing really important job. :mega:

[Blonde799]

Well BH4, I suggest you finish the quest before you start testing on it, so testers don't get dulled out.:)

[Nick]

1.) Whenever it's playable (not some one screen thing either), I start handing betas to a few people I talk to on AIM. After a dungeon or two, I get more testers.

2.) I get whatever's playable tested over and over again, whether that be by myself or with other testers. When I go thru test runs to test things I've done out, I usually skip to the most recent area.

3.) I basically make a big application topic and ask for testers. There's also the people I know on AIM who ask me to test. However... when I do this stuff... I pick trustworthy people I actually know a little about or have seen around for awhile.

4.) My testers usually start from their last save. In the case I do need something else tested from earlier in the quest, I simply ask a few to go back and take a look. I also let testers test the whole thing... finished or not. I'm not one to block off areas in betas. :shrug:

[System Error]

1) Usually when a demo/full release is ready to be released. Of course, you should test it yourself and make fix any major bugs so your testers can get by.

2) Try testing all of the quest at once for best results. Works better that way.

3) Select trusted people, don't select randomly or give it to some newbie ZClassic'r. Give it to testers who have had experience playing quests before.

4) Pretty interesting idea. But I said it before, and I'll say it once more: Everyone has his, her or its own unique testing skills. So you really should let them all have access to all the areas in your quests, for one may notice what one would not.

[TheGeepster]

I did basic testing to eliminate any large problems myself. (It was a relatively small quest, especially by today's standards and then released it with a note to let me know if any bugs were discovered. As I recall, the difficulty had to be toned down, I had to prevent people from swimming off into the void, and there was one problem with dying in the caves that could not be fixed.