Betatesters gezocht

Vandaag heeft Harald (onze technisch projectleider) een oproep via email verstuurd aan een aantal mensen die wij graag als betatester voor Dark Ink (de game die momenteel gemaakt wordt door studenten voor het UGame – ULearn project) willen hebben. Wij willen graag een testgroep van 50 personen selecteren dus vandaar ook de oproep op mijn weblog. Dus wil je meedoen, meld je dan aan via een email aan Harald (zie hieronder).

Maar eerst alvast wat beeldmateriaal.

Dear gamer,
As you might have heard already, development of the Dark Ink game as part of the UGameULearn project is progressing steadily. Initiated by the TU Delft and DOK libraries, Dark Ink was conceptualized, designed and created by a team of enthusiastic students from Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam, Haagsche Hogeschool and TU Delft Computer Science. The project leaders and I are very proud to announce the release of the beta version of Dark Ink among a closed beta test group on June 1!

Since you’ve expressed your interest in the past, we thought it fitting to ask you to become a beta tester for Dark Ink. In this e-mail, I explain our process of beta testing in detail. If you would indeed like to become a beta tester, please feel free to reply to this e-mail directly, as I will be coordinating beta testing. I will accept a maximum of 50 beta testers. Feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone who might also be willing to help us by becoming a beta tester. I will notify all accepted beta testers personally.

Goal of the beta test is to discern the game’s technical bugs and game-play imbalances. I expect beta testers to be able to help in the following way.

On June 1, I will send an e-mail to the beta test group containing a link from where the beta can be downloaded, as well as instructions for installing it. The beta test group will have to start playing the game as soon as possible, as the beta phase will be quite short, lasting only until June 11.

The beta testers will be asked to answer the following questions:

1. Start-up.
How did the game start up?
Did you get any errors, strange screens, unexpected resolution or any other technical hickups?

2. Hack-n-slash – technical.
How was the hack-n-slash gameplay, technically speaking? Did you get any errors, strange screens, weird movements of your character/the enemies, unexpected feedback during hack-n-slash?

3. Hack-n-slash – mechanic.
How was the hack-n-slash gameplay, in terms of the mechanic itself?
– Was it too difficult or too easy to defeat enemies?
– Which attack types did you use initially?
– Were the controls easy to find?
– How long did it take you to reach the riddle masters?

4. Riddle master – technical.
How was the riddle master gameplay, technically speaking? Did you get any errors, strange screens, unexpected feedback after being confronted with a riddle?

5. Riddle master – mechanic.
– How was the riddle master gameplay, in terms of the mechanic itself?
– Was it too difficult or too easy to solve the riddle?
– Had you gathered enough information in-game to solve the riddle instantly?

6. Transitions.
How was the transition from one area to another? Did you get any errors, strange screens, unexpected feedback?

7. Other technical comments.

Any other technical comments?

Please note that we will NOT be able to handle feature suggestions/requests, as the purpose of the beta test is to discern to what extent the game contains technical bugs and game-play imbalances only.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments.

Sincerely,
Harald Warmelink (email h.j.g.warmelink[at]tudelft punt nl)
Technical Project Manager Dark Ink