Saturday, June 4, 2011

Playability Alpha

I'm planning to release a second public alpha of Witch's Minion soon.  I know there's been a lot of anticipation for this release, but I also know how frustrating it can be to try to navigate a game and keep running into things that are not simply unfinished but game-breakingly broken. That said, fixing them is tricky; I've run through the existing game so many times by now that I either avoid these sections reflexively or have fallen into a routine that misses them entirely.  As such, I'm going to send out a couple of early copies to get some basic playability feedback and to see where players get stuck before the general release.  As a reward for reading this blog, you are hereby invited to receive one such copy!  Just let me know how to contact you--assuming you're someone reading this contemporaneously and not some mysterious future-person digging through the archives--and I'll send you a link.  You can email me at Scipio_Africnaus@ymail.com, or contact me via private message on TFGamesSite, if you prefer.


In retrospect, I realize that asking for individual contact is silly and paranoid.  I'll just post the link here when it's ready in about 20 minutes. 


Here it is: Witch's Minion Playability Alpha

Now, as for the disclaimer:  This game is frighteningly incomplete.  I do NOT recommend downloading it for fun; you'll just have a frustrating, rage-inducing time.  If, however, you'd like to download the game and provide feedback to help speed development, please, feel free.

In particular, I'm looking for all the ways the game is horribly, horribly broken.  Dead ends that prevent further progress.  A lot of the game is simply incomplete; that's just the nature of the current state of development.  However, before I release the general public alpha on TFGamesSite, I'd like to at least close up the major game-stopping bugs, so that people can spend more time providing complete and useful feedback, and less time trying to figure out if their current obstacle is a puzzle or a bug.

This section of the game is supposed to end with the acquisition of a G-Con ticket.  Anything that ends the game before that is something I need to fix.

Also, if you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd love to know what you tried doing that wasn't implemented, things you tried examining that weren't present, and so forth.  Hopefully, I'll be able to put together a laundry-list of outstanding problems I need to address, which should make finishing this section much faster.

Whether you're bug-hunting or just reading, thank you!

Feedback: Scipio Africanus
Posted by Scipio Africanus at 5:46 PM

5 comments:

  1. Chandra MagicJune 4, 2011 at 9:06 PM

    As I noticed in the pre-pre-alpha release at tfgamesite, your compass rose suffers from spacing problems. If you don't have a NW/SW exit, but you do have a N/S exit, the N/S get spaced wrong.

    Ugh, and I can't just past the fixed table, oh no, can't have that. D:

    Okay, so. In the Table of Various Dirctions (assuming you used Emily Short's example): up, northwest, northeast should have 2 spaces between the "" in the spacing column. North should have 3 spaces. West should have 3 spaces (east can too, but I don't think it -really- matters). Down, southwest, and southeast should have 2 spaces, and south should have 3 spaces.

    That should make it so that N and S line up properly with each other, and centered on the . in the middle of said compass rose.

    Also, occasionally, I get the [I need some kind of reaction from you to continue the scene. Enter a number, or say repeat to reaquiant yourself with the process] after I hit space to continue. Actually, I mostly get it twice.

    Lessee, the map is a neat adddition. Of coiurse, I can't read the business to the right of the hospital. The print is way too small.

    Conversation loop with the Hospital Receptionist. If you ask 'What is this place', then you only get the 'What is this place again?' topic. I.E.: no way to get out of it.

    And I'm stopping here for now, since I have to restart my game. :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scipio AfricanusJune 4, 2011 at 9:45 PM

    Ah, thanks! (Actually, you don't need to restart, by the way; when there's nothing important going on, you can just walk away from a conversation, you don't shouldn't need to officially end it. You should be able to leave, even if the [say nothing] quip doesn't appear. I should still add it, though.)

    The small business is "Reagents 'N Things," and it's mostly unfinished. I should redo the map, though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 5, 2011 at 2:44 AM

    I posted this on the forum too.

    I thought I'd just add in your testing alpha, some pictures seem to be missing.

    Asian medium bust picture is missing. So is Latin medium bust.

    Clothing from "Good Works Used Clothes" Only works for Extra Busty Brunette. All others create an error.
    At the costume shop, Touch Football and Sci-Fi Dress only work with Extra Busty Brunette. Police costume creates an error for everyone.
    Police costume only works for Medium Bust Brunette. All other clothes create an error.

    When I say all other clothes, I only mean shop clothes, clothes found in the apartment, if there are any for the character type, work as planned.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 5, 2011 at 3:00 AM

    Extra Busty means cream and clamps, I never knew there was anything higher.

    I doubt anything works for anything that high. I'll continue testing tomorrow.

    Oh, and after talking to Jacob, the game would not allow me downstairs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 5, 2011 at 9:21 AM

    Made more reports @TFG

    -Zeph

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)