Hi everyone,

In this second edition of the devlog, I thought it might be interesting to talk about how we test new features. First we'll look at how we handled this during the early prototyping phase of the game, then we'll dive into how we currently handle it and how you can try out the new features on our beta-branch.

Physical playtests

You might think that the first prototypes of the game were also digital, but they weren't! The concept of the game was easy to test with paper prototypes.

This allowed us to test the core game idea and iterate on it much quicker than we could have done by coding it with a game engine. At first we played the game ourselves as first iterations are still too rough and unstable to test with others.

Eventually the paper prototype was ready for much needed 'outside' feedback. We started by inviting friends over for playtest sessions. Their feedback helped us validate and adjust the core concept of the game.

Digital playtests

Although the paper prototypes helped us quickly iterate on the rules & mechanics of the game, it became time to move on. The game had become more stable and the paper prototype came with some time-consuming overhead like having to set everything up on the table and having to manually shuffle the cards. It also required our playtesters to travel to the prototype or for us to travel to them. Our goal was always for the game to be digital, so it was important to test it in its intended environment as there are some important differences. For example shuffling quickly becomes tiresome with paper prototypes but is completely automated in a digital game.

We recreated the game with a game engine and found an easy way to share the game with our playtesters through an online web-version. If you search thoroughly, you may still find an old version of the game online! This proved very useful in providing our playtesters with quick updates and making sure they were always playing the latest version of the game. Especially during COVID, it allowed us to conduct remote playtests.

As the quality and content of the game improved, it was time to bring in more feedback by transitioning into Early Access. However, as people were now purchasing our product, our workflow had to change.

Beta-branch

We were used to testing out new features with small updates. Features often changed or were sometimes even scrapped based on the feedback we received. This meant that creating art before the feature was validated, was often a waste of time. Thus for early versions of a new feature we actually use placeholder art. However, we felt that placeholder art and unstable new features should not be visible to Steam users that purchased our Early Access game. Unless...

Unless they specifically want to test out the latest features. This is how the beta-branch was born! The beta-branch is a 'beta' version of the game that contains the latest features and may contain placeholder art.

We apply our usual workflow to the beta-branch & players can test out new features here. After having received sufficient feedback and after replacing all placeholder art, the latest version of the beta-branch is pushed live for all our players.

How to play the beta-branch

At the writing of this post, the third planet is now live on the beta-branch! If you're interesting in trying it out, you can do so by:

• Going to your Steam Library, right clicking on the game & choosing properties.
• Select BETAS, then change 'None' to 'beta'.

We would love to hear your feedback with the in-game feedback feature (Press F8) or on our Discord server!.

We'll be back with a new devlog post in two weeks on Friday 20/08.
Have fun out there pilots!
Alexander & Harry