Seeking feedback/beta testers for 'Stray Heirs', a romantic fantasy WIP

Off-Topic Other Interactive Fiction
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Oh wow! I’d love to beta and you have NO idea how happy I am to hear you continued working on this! I check out this thread at least once a year looking for an update lol.Swear my heart skipped a beat when I saw you posted.

I’m really excited to eventually read this and I’m so happy you are doing better!

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42

Hello! If you’re still in need of beta readers,
I’d love to be considered! I read the available chapters, and this feels like such a novel way to interact with the IF medium. I’ve never beta-read(?) anything before, but I do have experience as a news editor and journalist, if that’s at all relevant?

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43

Would also love to beta test!

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44

I remember reading your game 8 years ago and since then I was checking frequently about any update.
Welcome back!
I’m so excited you have finished the game and can’t wait to read the full story!
If you’re still interested I would love to beta test.

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Hey everyone! Thanks so much for the lovely replies and messages!!! I really appreciate the support - especially hearing that some of you remember SH from all those years ago - that’s incredible!

I’m swamped with real life work right now, but I’ll get back to you individually in the next couple of days - hopefully with an updated version.

Thank you!!!

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Thanks so much for your replies @attolia and @kitkat! It really means a lot to me. I felt so embarrassed slinking back in here after all this time - messages like yours make it worth facing up to my social anxiety!

New beta version is up! Lots of bug fixes and small changes thanks to the amazing people in this community.

Fingers crossed the game will now work across browsers and OSs. Except Firefox. For me it works in Windows 11, Mac, Linux and Android with Chrome, Opera and Edge. Firefox does not and maybe never will work - it seems to do something odd with local storage?

TODO:

  • Fix dice roll calculation errors. I think they happen only when there are rolls on successive pages (seen in Ch 9, but maybe other chapters)?
  • Add a badge system so you can know if there are major experiences you’re missing
  • Increase relationship stats & conversation options for Nyora

Additional feedback that would be super helpful:

  • A couple of people have mentioned that they’d kind of like all the game endings to have epilogues. I have mixed feelings about this - I’d love to know what other readers think.

  • Another thing I’m getting mixed feedback on is the dice system. Some people like that you can’t reroll within a single chapter playthrough, some don’t. I worry that allowing rerolling could make people feel like they need to go back every time they fail a roll, and place too much emphasis on “winning” the rolls in general. The way I see it, the rolls are there to add a little bit of genuine unpredictability - I try to make it that failing a roll isn’t less interesting than succeeding. But it would be great to hear more opinions on this as well!

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