Hello to all the gamers out there,
With playtesting for Episode 2 of Muffles’ Life Sentence coming up SO SOON (literally next Monday), I thought I would take a moment to stop and think about the beta for Episode 1! The ups, the downs, the lessons learned, the bridges burned, the butter churned, so on and so forth.
Let’s kick it!
What do bug testers do?
Bug testing for Episode 1 came in all shapes and sizes- which is great! Larger development studios often need much more strict and regulated testing early in the process. Specific ways of documenting issues, certain timelines, etc. But for Muffles, the variety of different testers and testing approaches was a boon from the start!
The impression I had after the fact was that people were able to lean into the issues they noticed most and had the most knowledge about. Some people submitted bugs focused on grammar and sentence structure, others on gameplay exploits and sequence breaks. If I were to break down the types of bugs submitted, it would looks something like this~
- Gameplay issue (X doesn’t work)
- Grammatical (X is missing an apostrophe)
- Game design (X is missing an opportunity)
- Combat balance (X is too easy/hard a fight)
As long as Muffles’ is able to attract as many interested testers as in Episode 1 (and let’s be honest, if Lame and Dyll are on board) then this approach is fantastic! I’ve read through bug reports that were a one-time submitter about gameplay highs and lows vs. repeat reporters that post minute issues and both were so helpful at making Episode 1 as good as it is!
Bug testing for Episode 2
Episode 2 is going to have the same sort of bones as Episode 1. Dialogue, combat, movement, items, etc. But there are few new systems that I suspect are going to be a hotspot for bugs we haven’t seen before. Systems such as~
- Desert map navigation
- The eyeball passive system
- Muffles’ hat (I’m serious this one is tricky)
- Several new puzzle types
- Steam achievements
- Steam cloud saves and demo save migration
- Secret code system
- A giant cockroach! (Okay this one is a joke)
I think the discord forum method of posting bugs worked great for episode 1. The only big opportunity I see is I think the status of a post (unseen, seen, fixing, fixed, waiting on something) can be a bit unclear. I tried using a binary emoji (fixed vs. not fixed) and I think it worked FINE, but we might be missing an opportunity.
If any of you testers out there have ideas about this, or even BETTER- have other opportunities you’ve noticed, I would love to take those thoughts and ideas and improve the Episode 2 experience for all of us.
Episode 2 beta starts soon
A lesson I learned from Episode 1 is how necessary good communication is- from testers to me, me to testers, and me making notes to interpret later. On this front, I have to say y’all were rockstars on episode 1. So many people dedicated substantial time play, replaying, and reporting their issues, including pictures and descriptions of their experience.
I cannot impress enough how monumentally important this is to the health of Muffles. It’s a thin excuse but I am a TERRIBLE playtester (just ask Nomad) and I knew taking on a whole freaking RPG would be a huge task when it came to finding all the itty bitty issues (and the big ones) strewn throughout.
And with help from y’all, Episode 1 is a solid, fun, and entertaining experience through and through. And I’m SO excited for Episode 2 to hit the same mark.
Long hours of bug fixes here we come yay!
In other news
Wow. Bug testing. Episode 2. Can you belieeeeve it?
Bossy’s life is busier than ever figuring all this stuff out. I hope you all are doing well and are able to spend time on the things you find most fulfilling. That’s been my goal for a number of years now, and I can’t say I have any regrets.
Literally so excited to see everyone’s thoughts on Episode 2. I hope for strong praise AND strong criticism. That’s the best way to make sure Episode 2 is the best that it can be!
Reminder that the public livestream is TOMORROW on the discord (check there for details) and to all of you able to make it, I’ll see you there.
Adios~