The Stuff You Don't Think About #1 - Picking Testers for a New Game


My latest endeavor is picking the testing/design team for Legend of the Elements. This isn't something I'd wager many people not involved in the development of games think about much, but I'm taking LoE very seriously and thinking hard about the best way to go about each step of development.

Picking testers involves a few things. First things first, I made an application for people to fill out. It included basic questions like name/username/availability, but then delved into finding out what types of games the person plays, what they enjoy in games, what they think makes a good game, and some questions about Avatar: The Last Airbender to gauge how they think about the series.


Above image: Tester Applications

By reading through all their answers I can get a decent feel for how they think about games, as well as demographical stuff about their preferred game types and playstyle. This lets me accomplish two things:
1) Picking people who are able to critically think about games beyond the surface
2) Establishing a varied demographic of testers from all different types of playstyles/gaming backgrounds

It's best to get a wide variety of testers. Because the way people think is based on what they enjoy and what they've experienced. Someone who likes First-person Shooters is probably used to fast-paced action and individual skill over teamplay. And while LoE isn't going to be like that at all really, being that it's browser based game with 2D graphics and turn-based combat, they'll have a different perspective than someone who's used to slower strategic combat. And they'll come up with potentially different ideas as a result, like say "This part of the group combat actually feels too restrictive. It could a fun experience if you allowed players a bigger variety of ways to play within their role in the group, and a little more individuality"

So by gathering people of all types, I can get as many perspectives and opinions as possible, and weigh all those in my head. It doesn't mean I need to shape the game to please everyone, because that's impossible. But there are aspects of every genre that other genres can borrow or take inspiration from. And doing those little things can make a game amazing. Case in point? The Elder Scrolls games actually take huge inspiration from the first-person shooter genre. Rather than targeted abilities on a skill bar, they made it so you have to aim every combat spell you fire. Your bow has to be aimed manually as well. And by combining FPS mechanics with the RPG genre, the result is a game that's really really fun and immersive, and different from most other RPGs.

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