05.03.08
What’s the problem?
I can’t help but wonder if there’s something wrong with The Nameless Mod. The only person so far who’s completed it is Gelo, who went through it twice because we desperately needed somebody to. We’ve had (I think) 7 people outside the team play the game, and nobody has completed it yet. The latest round of testing was done on the A200 build, which is pretty much the finished game plus a few bugs and without most of the voice acting, and yet our testers are working at an epically slow pace.
Our testers assure me the game is great, impressive, comparable to a professional game, whatever. But none of them have actually completed it. Far as I can tell, the farthest anybody but Gelo has made it is our third mission (out of 5), meaning something like 30% of our game is largely untested. Surely if they’d been testing Deus Ex or Half-Life 2, they’d have forgotten about everything else and just been swept away by the experience? Somehow we must just be completely failing to keep the player’s attention…?
I don’t mean to whine, but it’s amazingly demoralizing when you’ve worked on a project for 6 years and then even the people who volunteer to test it (presumably your most dedicated fans) can’t really maintain interest in it. Testing should be the easy job, you just have to play the damn thing and write down whenever you find something that isn’t like it should be, so what the hell is the problem?
If you’re one of our testers and you’re reading this, don’t take it personally. I’m not mad at you, just worried about the quality of my own work.
fox said,
May 3, 2008 at 18:46
You really should give me that build so I can write something constructive about it…
Jonas said,
May 3, 2008 at 19:28
No I should give you that build so you could help us test it. But at this point I don’t really feel like taking on more testers, it’s not like our alpha testing has been very efficient so far.
Maybe you should sign up for beta testing. Hopefully our beta testing will go better, heh, or we’ll never release this game.
fox said,
May 3, 2008 at 20:00
Well, I would consider it an honour to help you with the beta testing. Sign me up if you want another tester.
Jonas said,
May 3, 2008 at 20:17
Mail me your e-mail address, please. You probably already know my mail, otherwise use this form:
http://thenamelessmod.com/contact/
Jonas said,
May 3, 2008 at 21:15
Cool, got your mail, you are now on The List. And once you’re on, you’re never getting off.
fox said,
May 3, 2008 at 21:30
…cool! *getting cold shivers*
Felix said,
May 3, 2008 at 21:45
Hmm, how did you select your alpha testers? Because it may be that they made an old commitment and felt compelled to follow through, or they may have a very busy life now, or there may be a boring bit/tricky/frustrating bit at 30%.
If you really want to get it done, have a friend play it while you watch over their shoulder. That way you’ll know exactly what’s happening.
Jonas said,
May 4, 2008 at 01:56
Actually we got the alpha testers just by asking them when we needed them, only one of them had already signed up to beta test, to my knowledge. We just chose people we trust.
I was indeed afraid there might be some indiscribably boring bit half-way through the game, that’s why I wrote the post. I don’t know - maybe there is. Not sure which bit it is, then.
I have had a few friends play it while I watched, but mostly it ends in frustration when I keep telling them “Uhm that’s a bug”, “Oh that’s not supposed to be there”, and “There’s a bit missing here we’re still working on”. I could try again now that we’re closer to completion, but it’s just kinda painful. Kale has set up a pretty sweet live stream from his game though so I can watch when he’s testing, and we can talk on TeamSpeak. That’s cool.
Casper said,
May 4, 2008 at 07:16
Hey Jonas,
I can help test it in real life if that’s something you’re interrested in?
Jonas said,
May 4, 2008 at 12:39
Yeah sure. But you never really liked Deus Ex. You never even made it past New York
fox said,
May 4, 2008 at 13:41
“(…) never really liked Deus Ex”
CODE RED! CODE RED! CODE RED!
Milton said,
May 4, 2008 at 14:57
I recall there is a huge open space in the game… Forum city I think…
Maybe that’s the problem, keeping the player focused in huge areas where you have to walk around for long periods just to get to your objectives can be really boring (even if there is a lot to do in the area, sometimes people just like it better when the gameplay is “corridorish”). Don’t know if that’s the case though.
(I would sign up for beta testing but I prefer to enjoy the game in full strengh… beta testing might spoil it for me… how selfish of me :P)
Jonas said,
May 4, 2008 at 15:11
We’ve done a lot to minimize the amount of time you have to spend running from place to place, but there’s still a fair bit of transportation remaining, I’m afraid. Hopefully that won’t stop people from enjoying our game
EER said,
May 4, 2008 at 17:02
I’ll continue to try and hack your svn server to get a copy. If I ever find out why nobody (save Gelo) has completed the mod after I hack your server, I’ll let you know
Milton said,
May 4, 2008 at 17:18
I didn’t mean to discourage you in anyway. Hopefully, people are short in time and if it’s not that, I guess you’ll figure out something to correct the issue.
Casper said,
May 4, 2008 at 22:12
Which make me a obivious game tester
I don’t even like it 
Jonas said,
May 5, 2008 at 00:02
Yeah you’ll just pull out a shotgun and run up to the first enemy you see and die messily. Then complain about it and quit the game in disgust
Casper said,
May 5, 2008 at 06:59
“MAKE IT BETTER” “I WANT TO BE ARNOLD”
That’s usefull comments from a tester
Felix said,
May 5, 2008 at 11:25
Maybe it is just so buggy it isn’t fun to play?
Jonas said,
May 5, 2008 at 12:46
Heheh maybe so