I'm weighing in a bit late on this conversation, but I've generally had a positive experience with open public testing. There are a few things I'm worried about though. For one, as your application gets better, you start competing with your final product. I'm also a little worried about people burning out on the game before it's even released, but I think I can circumvent that by adding a heap of new content for the final release. Another problem is early conversations mention a lot about the instability. That's normal in young applications but it might throw some people off.
As for the benefits, there were a lot of those too. It has built a great community which you wouldn't have had if you had a surprise release. Once everyone knows a new version is imminent, there is a lot of excitement too. I started public testing extremely early because I really wasn't sure how to proceed with the interface. Walking around a random dungeon had to have special consideration. Plus all the important decisions about SAPI and others were up in the air. Now I have a much better idea and I think the next project will benefit a lot from that. >From a game sales standpoint, I don't know if public or private testing is better yet though. Cheers! Jason --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
