I am a recent convert to text adventures, and since I love both programming and writing, I figured I might be able to create my own. I started one really ambitious idea and got stuck in tying all the pieces together. I started another smaller idea but it grew ambitious too.
I told myself I won’t get anywhere unless I get my first game through the entire process, and scoped the third attempt much smaller. I have just been finishing up some of the responses to weirder commands I can think of, but I look fordward to finding all the ways in which the game can be broken which I have not thought of!
Since this is the first pancake out of the pan it’s bound to come out a little odd, which means I’m not attached to any part of it and will take feedback very seriously. That said, I hope it should be about 10–30 minutes of fun puzzling – but again, it being my first I have no idea.
I’m looking for a beta-tester who is also somewhat willing to guide me through the beta testing process: how do I package the game in a format that is most helpful for a tester? How can I expect to receive feedback? Is there any chance of getting transcripts? Etc.
(Some quick answers: assuming you’re using one of the major languages, just providing the story file is fine; typically I like to ask a couple of prompting questions in addition to requesting transcripts; yes, per the previous answer you should definitely request transcripts and most testers will do so, though be sure to provide instructions for how to do that; and bonus response, more than one tester is generally a good thing to aim for!)
Me too. I love helping newbies. Send me a PM with details. Either attach the story file (assuming it’s one of the common formats) or provide a link to a site where I can download it.
You can never have too many testers. Everyone will pick up different things.
Whoa, I did not expect so many people to line up! I’m going to take the advice and recruit more than one tester. The reason I specified one is I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time, but given your enthusiasm I’m starting to think you might not consider it time wasted.
That said, I don’t think I need more than these for now. Thanks again for your interest. I’ll get back if I change my mind on this.
I already wrote this in the PM, but this was an amazing resource. Thank you so much!