Spire, Surge, and Sea - BETA TESTERS NEEDED

In a far-future seascape cursed by the ancients, will you make mankind’s last home a haven or a fortress?

Spire, Surge, and Sea is an interactive post-apocalyptic science fantasy novel by Nebula nominated game writer Stewart C Baker. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Back rebels or royals, or pursue your own rise to power. Speak for the spirits or fight for your own kind, or try to reconcile both by uncovering ancient injustices. Heal the creatures afflicted by a magical rot or defeat them in the name of defending the ones you love. Shape humanity’s destiny with magic, alchemy, or high-tech masonry.

But be warned: the gods, the spirits, and your king are watching your every move.

Directions for beta testing:

Email us, beta AT choiceofgames for access.

DO NOT POST ASKING WHAT THE BETA EMAIL ADDRESS IS. The first test to becoming a beta tester is inferring what it is based on how we describe it above.

Do not send DMs/PMs through the forum mail system, Discord, text message, carrier pigeon, or any other method than email.

When you send your EMAIL, include:

  • the game you want to test in the Subject line of the email.
  • your forum-name
  • your real name (first and last). Please indicate if your family/surname comes first as well. Beta testers’ names are listed in the game’s credits, which are accessed with the “About” link you’ll see within the game. If you don’t want to appear in the credits, or you want to be credited under a name other than your real one, please let us know.

Do not email us multiple times about joining a beta. If you don’t email us as soon as we post a beta, you go into a queue. As we post new drafts, we admit more people from the queue. Eventually, we will get to you. Some beta processes last longer than others, and it may take up to a few weeks to reach the front of the queue.

When you have been admitted to the beta, we will send you a link, a username, and a password as a reply to your email.

When you have feedback to submit:

  • Return feedback as part of the same email thread where you were admitted. Copying beta@choiceofgames on that email is the best way to make sure your comments are seen as soon as possible.
  • Please send screenshots or copy/pasted quotes whenever you can; it helps us track down whatever observation you’re making. In particular, the author may see things that you don’t, and/or the screenshot may contain more information than you realize.
  • If you’re submitting feedback using the Bug/Submit button in the game, make sure you include your handle/name in the body of the email. The Submit button obscures your email address, and I can’t give you credit for feedback if I don’t know who you are.

A few more notes:

  • You cannot be testing two games at once. If you are already testing one game, send in feedback on that game before you apply to another. If you apply for multiple games at the same time, you will likely be admitted first to whichever game has testing slots open up first, and we won’t be able to admit you to the other one until you send in your comments for that one. (From an admin standpoint, it’s easiest if you don’t apply to more than one game at once – applying to multiple games makes it more likely that we’ll miss admitting you to one of them.)
  • If you’re admitted as a tester but realize you won’t be able to send in feedback for that game, please let us know! You won’t be penalized in any way - we’ll just take you off the list of testers for that game. But if you sign up to test a game and don’t send comments or withdraw, it will affect your chances of being admitted to future betas.
  • There’s no standard length of time for a beta testing period to last, and we usually don’t know exactly how long a game will be in beta when it opens. The best way to know how long a beta will be open is to follow the thread for updates.
  • It’s fine to send multiple feedback emails, but if you have a lot of quick comments, it’s easier to keep track of them if you bundle them into one email.

Tips on How to Give Feedback

We’re 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.

“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, word choice, 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.
  • 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 also really helpful 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.
15 Likes

New build pushed!

Changelog for 2025-04-24

  • Tweaked some descriptions for clarity and ~ambiance~.
  • Implemented major and minor checkpoints in each chapter, and a way to restore to them from the stats page.
  • Gerran’s/Gerrina’s bio and relationship status now appears correctly on the stats page after the player has met him/her/them for the first time.
  • The following scenes SHOULD now be fixed and remember your choices and outcomes correctly:
    • Chapter 2 (whether you captured, failed to capture, or hid Nan/Aanan)
    • Chapter 4 (which character you leave the Shallows with / talk with at the end of the chapter)
    • Chapter 5 (whether you’re capturing/helping the Surge)
    • Chapter 5 (which NPC you’re visiting the Night market with)
    • I suspect they might still have some buggy stuff in them, though, and would definitely appreciate more feedback on these and similar situations if things are still behaving weirdly!
  • Added a way to change your pronouns and sexuality/romance preferences from the stats page
  • Added career and sexual/romantic preference to the stats page
  • Fixed the “Master of Alchemy/Masonry/Spirit Use” achievements.
  • Fixed a number of minor typos and code errors.
  • The minigames section in the stats page broke things so I have removed it for now.
4 Likes

Change Log for April 29, 2025

This was a fairly small update, primarily fixing pronoun mixups, typos, continuity issues caused by variable mishaps, and other minor bugs.

A few specific fixes:

  • Chapter 10 should now correctly track if you’re working with Surge or Spireguard
  • The epilogue should now correctly remember which boss you defeated in chapter 10
  • The fishing fleet subquest should now stop letting you pick options you’ve already completed
  • After completing the first level of the Shallows, you can now actually read descriptions of the second room and the balcony (apparently it helps if you actually write descriptions for rooms! who knew?!)

I am still working on higher-level feedback I’ve received so far, which has more to do with tweaking the pacing, adding additional descriptive text in places, and adding more clarity to the plot as it unfolds. I am also still working on some of the more complex reported bugs.

3 Likes

Change Log for May 12th, 2025

  • The game now recognizes when you win a game of Nim
  • Fixed a bug that didn’t give out the “obstacle master” or “nim master” achievements properly
  • Finding books in the archives now increases the relevant stat
  • Slightly tweaked the description of Mx. Anura (the masonry master)
  • Fixed a bug with how the night market scene checked if you got the NPC a gift they wanted
  • Fixed an extremely confusing bug in chapter 8 that repeated the “how do you distract the crowd” choice and also made it appear in branches it should never have been in
  • Fixed formatting on checkpoint notifications
  • The scene where you help out the ship’s crew no longer repeats during the fishing fleet flashback
  • The stats screen now shows your relationship status with Spireguard and Surge, as well as whether either considers you a potential leader
  • Minigames now reset to their starting state when replaying them on the same playthrough
  • Subject verb agreement fixed when player selected they/them pronouns for variable-gender NPCs
  • Other slight tweaks, typos, minor bug fixes, etc.
3 Likes