Help polishing up a game

Abigail Storm
05 Dec 2016, 23:37

I finished all the programming parts of my game... Anyone got advice on what I should do to make my game suitable for the general public? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


OurJud
05 Dec 2016, 23:58

It's a pain - too much of a pain for me as it happens - but the only way is to play test your game to death. Make sure no errors get thrown up , test all possible routes and actions, check for typos and bad grammar, and while you go along, if you think you can make a description sound better, do so.

Also seek out the really good TA (they're very few and far between) and study their construction.

Here's one for a starter. You need to download it, but it's worth it. Forget the interface and just study the game itself, the descriptions, the responses, etc etc.

The only (slight) irritation with this game is waiting for the text to display, as it uses a 'typewriter' effect which is rather slow. I think if you set the graphics to low at the start, it may run faster, but I went for max and haven't tried it on low yet.

https://jonnocode.itch.io/the-house-abandon

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/PYx-sSdCSz8


Abigail Storm
06 Dec 2016, 00:00

i will... I'll try to make my parents test it too. I wish I could get beta testers, but I simply cannot, as I'm using the web version.


OurJud
06 Dec 2016, 00:03

Any particular reason you're not using the desktop version?


Abigail Storm
06 Dec 2016, 00:06

I have a Mac, and Quest only works on Windows. Otherwise, I would download Quest in a heartbeat.


OurJud
06 Dec 2016, 00:11

Ah.


Abigail Storm
06 Dec 2016, 00:12

I know, it sucks. However, I've observed some people put "Works in progress" on the gaming website. I really want to polish it up to the best of my ability, but I simply need a beta stage...


The Pixie
06 Dec 2016, 09:07

Publish it as "unlisted", and then ask people to beta-test it. Once it is perfect, you can change it to listed (and its publication date should be that point).

Does your browser have a spell-checker built-in? That is the one upside of using the on-line editor.


Abigail Storm
06 Dec 2016, 22:15

Yes, it does.
I'll try to publish it as unlisted.