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Weekly Update - Alpha Test Plans

4 years ago - Edited 4 years ago1,229 words

A bunch of stuff got in the way this week, but I'm probably ready to start the alpha test phase of Atonal Dreams. Here's what I need to do next week to get to that point.

It was my birthday on the 25th, and I got a COVID-19 vaccine a couple of days after that, which left me with severe side effects for a day or so; ∞ I wrote about that in a personal post ∞. Feels like both of those things disrupted my usual routine, and I didn't get a whole lot done on Atonal Dreams in general.

Atonal Dreams Progress

Thankfully there wasn't all that much left to do anyway before I could call the game ready for alpha testing. I've only done the intro section, and it's very rough around the edges and there are a lot of details that are either missing or in need of attention, but it seems wise to get feedback from at least a handful of players about the general gameplay mechanics before refining anything or building more areas in case I need to make some major changes.

I'm not entirely sure how to go about getting feedback though! With my last game, Memody: Sindrel Song, I ran a beta test through Kartridge, as the platform was suggested to me by someone who was helping me out at the time. This time though, I think I'll run the test through Steam. Having a Steam page for the game will be valuable anyway, since it'll allow people to add it to their wishlists. Allowing people to do that long before the release seems to be important for getting the algorithm to suggest the game to people when it's available.

So the first thing I'll need to do is make a store page for Atonal Dreams on Steam. Honestly I absolutely hate the thought of this since the Steam upload process is so convoluted and time-consuming, and I can see it taking a day or two or more just because of the tedium of it (filling out pages of forms, making a bunch of 'capsule' images, etc, etc)... but I need to do it at some point, I suppose.

I should probably also update ∞ the Atonal Dreams info page ∞. It's not as if anyone really views that, so I won't make it a high priority, but if I've got time then it'd be nice to refresh it with since some things have changed a bit.

I intend to make use of both my Patreon and Discord servers for feedback. For that, I'll need to figure out how to give Discord access and roles to patrons. I've also been putting off deciding on moderators or rules for the discord due to my general aversion to running a community again (the thought of having to deal with drama - and dreading going to sleep every night because of what I might wake up to - again makes me feel sick), but I'll probably need to do something about that... I'm not looking forward to it, honestly. I still feel traumatised by the Fig Hunter stuff from years ago, though I expect a discord wouldn't nearly be as bad.

I have four tiers on my Patreon, with the top tier (Diamond) listed as giving access to beta builds of my games, so I'm hoping some of those people will be willing to play an alpha build and provide feedback. Specific feedback, that is; in the past, some beta testers have provided detailed comments about individual dialogue lines, monster statistics, etc, which is immensely useful, while others have just given a short summary of the experience after they've finished, which is far less useful.

I've been wondering whether to add an in-game way to provide feedback, so that the log would provide context to comments; I think other games' betas have done this? Would this be necessary though, or would just having the Discord be enough?

Once I've got a Steam page and Discord set up, I'll need to figure out how to get alpha build keys to the right people.

These are all things I'm the opposite of excited about for a bunch of reasons, so I can imagine dragging my feet about them. I hope there'll be a lot of benefits to pushing through though.

There are some fairly big gameplay aspects I personally feel very uncertain about, though I think I'll write a post listing those on Patreon. If players feel similarly, I'm completely open to making major gameplay tweaks if they'll make the game more fun to play!

Music Album of the Week

I was actually intending to put up a combined album containing the music I'd composed for Fig Hunter Online and Chamaeleon before abandoning them, but it turned out to be more difficult to adapt the files than I expected (they don't use the standard midi soundfont, but I'm not entirely sure what soundfonts they do use). I'll probably do those next week instead, when I have more time.

Due to both that and generally being distracted and feeling crappy due to the vaccine, I've put up the MARDEK OST this week.

This is the same OST available on Steam - they're the exact same files - and it combines the separate chapter OSTs from my old Bandcamp page too, so it's nothing new. Still, I felt I should include it because it was an enormous part of my composing history so it feels weird not to, plus it was next in the chronological order of albums I want to upload anyway.

Other Games

I've started playing the recently-released Switch RPG Bravely Default II, the third entry (bizarrely) of a series I've played extensively in the past. ∞ I wrote a post about my first impressions last night ∞.

I was looking into Kickstarters during the week, since I keep wondering whether or not to do one. One of my biggest concerns is having to make physical rewards, since my plate is already more than full with all the actual game-making I'm trying to do, and that on top of everything just seems like too much. But would a Kickstarter succeed without them? There must be a reason seemingly everyone includes them. ∞ This r/gamedev thread ∞ got a few replies suggesting that including physical rewards as an indie dev is a stupid idea, at least.

This isn't games-related, but while searching for pose ideas, I came across ∞ this remarkably successful Patreon which is generating its creator over $5k per month ∞. Interesting seeing someone able to monetise their creative efforts in that way, and makes me wonder how much more likely people are to support someone who'll help them achieve something (like the tutorials here) rather than just something they passively consume. HMM.

Also

Can I keep putting off the next stages forever? Maybe I should take another week off!! No, two! Two years off!! That'll help me survive in the world for sure!!!

Bleh... I need to do these undesirable next steps at some point!