The Road to Canterbury -- BETA TESTERS NEEDED

Take a pilgrimage to Canterbury with Chaucer, the Wife of Bath, and the whole motley crew. Faith, intrigue, and chivalry abound.

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 high-level 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.

5 Likes

I would love to beta test

May I beta test? If so, that would be nice.

@Harley_Robin_Evans @57Faults Please read the instructions carefully about how to sign up for beta testing. Posting a comment here is not how to sign up.

8 Likes

Some educational resources here (for teachers):

https://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/chaucers-wife-bath

2 Likes

New draft up!

Typos and code

  •      Corrected name to player name Chapter 5, line 1012
    
  •      Corrected horse display after acquiring new horse in Ch. 6
    
  •      Added a "goto storyscore" in Ch 8 which fixes the looping problem in Eustace tale
    
  •      Corrected "pounds" to "pound" Ch 1
    
  •      First person option Ch 2 line 286
    
  •      Ch 3 line 530 capitalized Five
    
  •      Added "as" to Ch. 3 line 916
    
  •      Corrected "bit leather" Ch 5
    
  •      Removed extraneous line break in Ch 6
    
  •      Corrected spelling of "genuinely" Ch 8
    
  •      Added space after Aquinas quote Ch 8
    
  •      Changed "received" to "received" Ch 10
    

Gameplay

  •      Corrected "returns your glance" repeat, Tales line 835
    
  •      Allowed for more possibilities re food, Ch 2 line 715
    
  •      Clarified the terms of the "hoarder" achievement
    
  •      Added a neutral re England/France option Ch 2, line 322
    
  •      Added unique text at Ch 1 line 277
    
  •      Changed wording of an option Ch 1. Line 324
    
  •      Changed "what are you thinking" to "reason to doubt" Ch. 1 line 382 (to better set up player expectations of the choice)
    
  •      Revised choice at Ch 1 line 384 to add an option and clarify.
    
  •      Added choice at Ch 1 line 403 to smooth over the killing discussion
    
  •      Changed description of horse costs in Ch. 1 to shillings
    
  •      Added text to choice in Ch 1 line 1310
    
  •      Tweaked reference to suspicion in Tales line 939
    
  •      Tweaked the wording of the options in Tales 942 to differentiate more
    
  •      Added a couple of lines about Selime to Ch 2 line 570
    
  •      Tweaked wording of Ch 2 line 1040
    
  •      Added an option at Ch 3 line 672
    
  •      Added text to choice at Ch 3 line 772
    
  •      Added text to choices in conversations at end of Ch 6
    
  •      Added small branching to Ch 5 line 1078 to account for the fact that Richard might be starting his tale for the second time
    
  •      Added an option to fake_chioce at Rochester bridge Ch 6 line 411
    
  •      Tweaked some wording in Chaucer's tale in Ch. 7
    
  •      Changed "pence" to coins in opening screen
    
  •      Tweaked wording of loyalty to England setup in Ch.  5 line 87
    
  •      Gated "find myself short of money" and similar line to pennies stat in Ch 7
    
  •      Added a few words to the setup of tales to give a clue as to which option would work for pious character
    
  •      Tweaked wording on "version you tell" Ch 8
    
  •      Tweaked "genuinely eager" line Ch 8
    
  •      Tweaked wording of Elias's rage in Ch 8
    
  •      Tweaked wording to "five more pounds" in Ch 1
    
  •      Tweaked "you see" Ch 1
    
  •      Added comma Ch 1 line 333
    
  •      Tweaked wording of "he has a point" Ch 2
    
  •      Changed an eyebrow wiggle to a rib elbowing in Ch 1 to cut down on repetition
    
  •      Added page break to label afterfight Ch 4
1 Like

Some bugfixes have been posted.

i’d love to test…

There are instructions in the original post on how to sign up

i emailed him, no response.

It takes a bit. He’s not checking his mails every hour

1 Like

New draft posted.

  • Code fix to money stats
  • Added short author’s note at the end
  • Fixes to typos, minor continuity issues and minor display errors throughout
  • Fixed a few spacing issues in dialog
1 Like

New draft posted!

  • More typos, display errors and minor continuity errors fixed
  • Smoothed some transitions with clearer narrative flow

New draft posted!

  • Added chapter headers and statscreen headers (ooh, pretty)
  • Fixed a couple of small continuity errors
  • Removed extraneous temp variable causing trouble in Ch 3
  • Fixed a few typos and display errors
  • Some minor rewording to improve narrative flow and clarity
4 Likes

Has the patch been pushed through yet?
Noticed the stats menu doesn’t yet seem to have those headers.

Screenshot

Thanks Carlos. Try now.

1 Like

New draft posted!

  • Fixed two continuity errors (Ch 9 and 6)
  • Fixed sword description error Ch 8
  • Fixed repeating lines Ch 10
  • About a half-dozen typos and tweaks to wording throughout
2 Likes

New draft posted!

  • Fixed entry into gosub in Ch 6
  • One typo Ch 7
  • Removed repeating line Ch 2
  • Changed the way being ambidextrous affects the description of which arm you’re using
  • Fixed small continuity error post game in Ch 7
  • Tweaked a few words of dialog Ch 10
  • Clarified a few words in dice game Ch 7
  • Added a few words of dialog Ch 2
1 Like

We’re reaching the end of the beta. Please have all feedback in by Thursday at the latest.

But, sooner is better.

3 Likes