It sounds stressful but a great stage to reach, to have testers like that, those who are invested in you and your work.
I haven’t earned my way to that stage, to have that mutual connection with enough players. Although I have some amazing players on my public wip who have been of immeasurable help, much more than I could have expected.
Yep, I think public-til-i-die is the way for me at the moment (subject to dithering and change).
I’m always happy to put in a good word for public-til-i-die.
Plenty of authors I love do it differently, and bless 'em, but I’ll keep opening up to as much feedback as possible.
Depends. I find I get more people giving feedback and engaging in discussions in a private test rather when it is public (it seems more likely people will read but for some reason not feel comfortable providing feedback if left open so you get lots of views but few comments) so my preference is to move it to private towards the end and have more discussion going between people who want to read it.
Buuut if you’ve got few people reading your game or volunteering for a closed beta, sometimes it can be better to leave it on open beta and just cross your fingers and hope enough people read it that at least a few will be willing to let you know what they think.
Some people worry about most people reading it before it releases, but there’s a much larger audience than what is on the forums so it wouldn’t be my major concern. Occasionally people do leave negative reviews that there was nothing new in the game since they read it on the open forum link so regret buying it, but they are a minority.
Basically no one size fits all. It’ll depend on your preferences as an author, how popular your game is, and whether you have some dedicated beta testers on board.
I agree, good testers willing to volunteer their time are the best 
I will say this, About 1 in 10 will have REALLY good feedback, about a fourth won’t really contribute much but some general vibes.
The thing is, testers vary. Real life is complicated. Everyone has special interests. Some testers hyper-obsess on specific paths and are very helpful there but rarely touch others. Other testers are meticulous at finding errors; some understand code, others flow. The more testers you have, the better feedback you will have. And as a new tester, then a public beta will get you the most.
Cheers for all the great responses. Very thorough and insightful opinions from some very experienced authors.
In the interest of practicality, I would say that unless a new wip has absolutely blown up, the pool of testers would be too limited to make a private beta valuable. The public beta seems best to find an initial audience and get a variety of helpful opinions and advice, in regards to tightening up a game and finding errors.
I would say that a fully public beta offers the greatest potential to guide me towards making the best game I can in my circumstances.
Look, I haven’t played it yet (I rarely play wips), but I have heard a lot of good things. Looks like you’re doing well so far.
@malinryden
Ceasar has spoken! Haha, thanks.
I definitely have some readers enjoying the world I’m creating, which, ultimately, makes it worthwhile.
The openness and freedom of choice script and the forums here, where anyone can join to try their hand at making interactive fiction and reach an already (relatively) large and established audience of wip testers, is unique in my experience.
Writing and game-making can be an inherently isolating thing and this place must really help to spur people on. Wish I’d found it a few years ago!