Beta Testing

[filharvey]

Ok, I noticed a today a post about beta testing games. They were after a list of beta testers and willing to pay.

Thinking about things wouldn't it be best for everyone to get together and develop a site which would provide beta testing services. For game developers?

This is certainly one of the problems I've had in the past, getting people to beta test games, and certainly with the current game I have in development would need a good place to go about the testing of the game on different machines.

What do people think on this? Is it worth everyone pulling together to develop a service like this?

Thanks

Phil

[Emmanuel]

Don't know; quite a few people here (myself included) will be happy to beta-test a game. I do as long as it's in a category I like playing and think have something useful to say about (ie. not a shooter :)). I know I got fantastic feedback on Garden War and I don't need such a service so far, unless it provided really targeted gamers for each genre.

[dypaul]

There is a site like that already. It's betashare.com. The problem is, the traffic is very low (their last posting was many months ago). I think the best way is to solicit visitors who come to your site because 1) they are interested in your type of game; 2) they probably have a wide assortment of system configs because they are a microcosm of your customer base; and 3) some of them may be your customers who have tried your games out and may be eager for more. But this option is only available for established developers, not newbies. There's the rub.

[FlySim]

I use friends and family for Beta testing - works well because they want to help. I also collect old machines (mostly donated) to do testing on - I think I have 6 now. They are pretty slow with crappy video cards, but they work for testing and still play Unreal and Think Tanks for lan parties.