Welcome to the “Feedback Exchange” thread for February 2024.
Here, authors seeking feedback, can set up posts that provide the particulars of their needs and readers seeking to provide feedback can set up posts that provide their interests and availability.
Like the English Tea Exchange worked to connect buyers and sellers, the Feedback Exchange’s purpose is to connect authors with testers/readers.
The format I’d like people to use for Author posts is the following (It is suggested to keep the header of each line item to avoid confusion) :
User Name (redundant but necessary)
Author Post
Name of Project/Game.
Genre and relevant tags that apply.
Time commitment (if running a alpha/beta run).
Feedback that you are seeking.
Link to the WiP thread, or other means of direct contact. Be sure to indicate if DMing is allowed.
The format I’d like people to use for Reader posts is the following (It is suggested to keep the header of each line item to avoid confusion):
User name (redundant but necessary)
Reader Post
Genres and tags that interest you as a reader. Things that would excite your interest in a WiP.
Hard passes. Things that would turn you off from a game (i.e. gender-locking)
Time commitment – Are you willing to participate in beta or alpha runs? Can the author follow up with you on feedback given, etc.
Specific qualifications that would help authors (such as being a screen reader)
Any contact info the author can use to connect to you. Be sure to indicate if DMing is allowed or not.
This thread will be monthly, so that when authors and readers are available in the moment, they can connect at that time.
There is no obligation, apart from that, which the author and the reader agree on together.
I am open to suggestions to format and presentation for next month’s thread, so please let me know if you think of something.
I have a good bit of free time on commutes and I am running out of concepts to daydream for my WIP during it. So count me in.
Dryinspection. Also go by just Dry and Sam.
Anything recent history, basically 1800s and forwards. Superhero stuff. Action stories. And most of the stuff that are modern day or recent history. Bonus points for Fantasy themes that have people who are isekaied into it. Be it MC. Or NPC like the bread must rise. It doesnt necessarily have to be those, but those are the ones I enjoy the most and replay alot.
Horror. I don’t like horror games or movies. They bore me.
I have a good deal of free time and I can be reached at pretty much any time that I am awake. I currently do not work and thus have a good deal of free time when I am not at University.
I don’t particularly know what to put here. But I guess the most relevant “experience” I have is a good 7-8 years worth of Text RP experience and reading a vast majority of the COGs and HGs that are released. Particularly the longer ones.
DMs here are good. Although if for some reason you wish to contact me in a different manner to Forum DMs. My Discord is the same as my username.
Most of all as always. Enjoy your writings and readings!
I am happy to provide one round of review and comment for a WIP, perhaps if you’re starting out, but anything after that will depend on my schedule and other commitments, as well as other factors.
I’m a native english speaker, so I can help to fix sentence structure and writing if you’re not fluent in English. Discuss this with me if you’d like.
DM is fine. I like it when people wanna talk. I might be busy, so please forgive me if I log in and read your message without responding immediately.
Genres and tags: I love fantasy and supernatural, but I am happy to read all genres. Prefer games to have romance, but it isn’t a must. A lot of customization, and being able to be binary or non-binary trans, is a big bonus.
Hard passes: Gender-locked female, or male-locked games that expect the PC to be a macho man. All ROs being female. The PC being pregnant.
Time commitment: I have less time and energy for the next month or so, but I am generally more interested if the author wants to have a back-and-forth about stuff, instead of feedback being just a one-way delivery.
Specific qualifications: Not sure? I’m non-binary, and have done betas for both CoG and HG before? I’m danish, if your game happen to take place here? Is being somewhat blunt in your feedback a qualification?
Genres and tags: Preferably Sci-Fi or fantasy, but super hero things work too.
Hard passes: Sex scenes (either implied or graphic) that you can not opt out of. (Example: I beta read Congresswolf. There was an option to flirt with a character, and next thing you know my character was in bed with them without getting any option in the meantime to indicate if you want to go that far. (Or in that case, no options between the flirting and the implied sex at all.) High School (or College) settings. I tried Betaing for Community College Hero once. Only made it through one playthrough. It’s really not my thing.
Time commitment: I prefer beta testing because of my style of reviewing (a focus on low level (spelling, grammar, word use) and continuity issues). Putting together that level of feedback for a game in its beta stages will be a slow process, so count on a month or two for a single playthrough.
I do not have a lot of spare time at the moment, but wanted to put this out there anyway for authors looking for that kind of thing.
Specific qualifications: I’ve done proofreading for a couple of Choice of Games, Fallen Hero (only a little, mostly because of how huge the game is), and Unnatural (I have a cameo in the game. Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?) I’m demisexual and my partner is asexual, so if you want feedback on if your MC might be lusting after a character’s boobs too much despite the player being completely uninterested (looking at you, Samurai of Hyuga) I might be a good pick.
Genre: Urban fantasy, romance, reverse harem, supernatural, female locked, pre set MC
Feedback that I am seeking:
I’m most concerned with feedbacks about characters (including MC) and chemistry between MC and the love interests. Other feedbacks like the writing (eg: pacing, dialogue, etc) and the game mechanic (my “stat page”) are also welcome.
I’m not interested in grammar and spelling mistakes, pronoun bugs (I intentionally add those in to deal with my perfectionism so I’m not fixing that).
For author posts, there could be another point for them to give a short description of their game.
Also, maybe instead of “Time commitment” for author posts, we could have “Estimated Playtime” or “Wordcount”, since testers/readers could have varying amounts of time to contribute. Some might play once and offer high-level feedback. some might be willing to contribute hours with each update, but both groups are useful.
Playtime depends heavily on reading speed though… and can be hard to estimate. Of all those three, wordcount is the only one I personally would even know how to provide, but that of course is no reason to do one way or another.
I think this is a good idea, but I don’t want to force that level of detail and demand it – my opinion is both authors and readers should be doing this though.
I added a suggestion to the format section to keep the header for each line-item in the original post. Do you think that is enough?
Hard passes: Nothing to be honest, my main turn off is boredom.
Time commitment: Schedule is very free right now, but that will change starting April; and if you couldn’t rely on me for feedback I wouldn’t be here to begin with.
Specific qualifications: A fresh set of eyes, I read Whiskey Four a week ago and absolutely fell in love with it. I found this forum, and saw you had asked for beta testers literally an hour after I finished. If that’s not divine intervention, I don’t know what is.
Contacts: Discord is my most neutral ground, handle is “americangoblin”. DMing here is also fine.
