Dinoknights -- BETA TESTERS NEEDED

Be a knight who rides dinosaurs into battle against the Queen’s enemies! A YA fantasy adventure.

(If you liked Runt of the Litter, this has a very similar vibe.)

Email me, jason AT choiceofgames for access. DO NOT SEND ME A MESSAGE THROUGH THE FORUM MAIL SYSTEM. When you send your EMAIL, include your forumname, your real name, and the game you want to test.

(You cannot be testing two games at once. Send feedback on one and you can apply to another.)

I will send you a link, a username, and a password.

Return feedback TO ME. Preferably part of the same thread, rather than a new email.

I’m looking for “high level” and “low level” feedback. Not mid-level feedback.

Low-level = typos and continuity errors. A continuity error is when a character’s gender flips, or someone comes back from the dead, or you run into a plotline that just doesn’t make sense (because it’s probably a coding error).

For these low-level issues, SCREENSHOTS are VERY HELPFUL. If you see a problem, take a screenshot, or copy and paste the text that is in error, and email that. Also, the “BUG” button is great; but if you use BUG, make sure to say in your email who you are, so I can give you credit for the report.

“High level” feedback has to do with things like plot, pacing, and characters. “Scene A didn’t work for me because x, y, and z,” is useful feedback. “B character was entirely unsympathetic, because u, w, and v,” is also useful feedback.

“Mid-level” feedback describes things like grammar, style, or the use of commas. As I said above, I do not want mid-level feedback. In particular, DO NOT WRITE TO ME ABOUT COMMAS.

“I had a great time and saw only a few spelling errors,” is not useful feedback. In fact, it’s the sort of thing that results in you not being given access to future betas.

Some examples of useful feedback:

In Choice of the Dragon, you get to choose what type of wings you have: leather or scaled. Someone wrote in and asked about having feathered wings. Great suggestion! Done!

In “The Eagle’s Heir,” someone asked about Eugenie. They said that the romance moved too quickly–because she only appeared in the last third of the game–and wished they could have had an opportunity to meet her earlier. So the authors added an opportunity to meet her and start the romance earlier in the game (in a scene that already existed).

In “Demon Mark: A Russian Saga” several people commented on how the PC’s parents were unsympathetic, so the authors added a choice or two to deepen the relationship with the parents in the first chapter, to help better establish their characters.

Similarly, pointing out a specific choice and saying, “this is who I imagined my character was at this particular moment, and none of these options seemed right for me. I would have liked an option to do X instead,” is really helpful feedback.

Another useful piece of feedback: if you choose an #option and then the results of that #option don’t make sense. Like, if you thought an #option might test one stat, but it seems to have tested a different one.

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Is giving your real name optional? I do not really fancy having it publicly displayed.

If you don’t want to be credited on the game, that’s ok. We do keep a (private) log of users, so it’s helpful to us if you send in a first and last name, but we won’t share that with anyone.

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Theoretically, I would think you could create a pseudonym, a name you only use for the IF/CoG field.

Dude how do I even get to your email

Read the first post in the thread. Everything you need to know is there.

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I would love to be a beta tester for Dino knights if your still accepting people.

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We’ve had a lot of testers admitted, but only two or three people have sent in any feedback. Please try to get in some initial thoughts today or tomorrow.

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New draft posted!

  • All errors/small fixes noted so far addressed
  • Added Dinosaur Glossary in stats chart
  • Added option for Brutus to be your dino
  • Added option to have a velociraptor
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New draft posted!

  • New romance scenes in chapters 3 and 7
  • Some additional world-building
  • Extra scenes for practicing magic in Chs 1-2.
  • NPCs considerably nicer to the MC, especially in the first few chapters.
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Will there be a public demo

This is a beta thread. For the beta test. When the game is released, like all our games, it will have a certain number of chapters for free, which is to say, a demo. Please stop posting random questions on our beta threads. Start a new post or email support if you aren’t clear on how things work.

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The reason it’s written that way is because of Spambot.

Ok thanks I’ll try it now

I didn’t know why you can’t actually be evil and learn magic(is the story too short?) but other than that it was on par.

Feedback is to be submitted over email.

New draft posted!

  • Expanded section in Bourg-les-Bains
  • Melusine available as RO
  • Part-way through adding a pet for Ermessen
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Ok! Time for any final thoughts. We need all remaining feedback by Wednesday.

@jasonstevanhill should you email the feedback? (Because I have sent it to you already)