Tower Behind the Moon -- BETA TESTERS NEEDED

Announcements Beta Testing
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Hi All –

Because Kyle Marquis is a beast, he’s actually almost done with his third game–when Silverworld just came out last month! This third game is an archmage game, entitled Tower Behind the Moon. In his recent author interview, Kyle described Tower like this:

"But you’ve actually also been writing another game, a “shorter” game, alongside Silverworld, called The Tower Behind the Moon. Tell us a little about it.

Tower is a fantasy game about an archmage seeking ascension. Fantasy wizards seem to have a sort of life-cycle, like cicadas: (1) apprentice, (2) adventurer-wizard, (3) wizard-in-a-tower, (4) wizard-god. I wanted to tell a story about what happens in the last month between (3) and (4), about how a wizard escapes the bounds of the mortal world…or fails to do so.

Though there’s still plenty of action–monsters to confront and enemy wizards to duel–Tower is less of an adventure story than Empyrean or Silverworld; it’s quieter and more elegiac. You play a magician who is, in a way, attending their own funeral, wrapping up loose ends before departing to become an archon, or a deity, or an entombed lich or something even stranger. You settle debts, make sure your apprentice and other helpers have a place in a world without you, and try to make peace with the mistakes you made and the things you’ve done for power and knowledge."

So far, he’s written the first six chapters, leaving the seventh/final/climax chapter left to go.

We’d like some testers to play through the game and give us their feedback, much like a traditional beta, just with the last chapter not done yet. Suggestions about things to add to the story as a whole are appreciated.

As per usual, write to me at jason AT choiceofgames and I’ll send you the url, the login, and the password.

Thanks!

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You’d like us to email you? Just to make sure – you’ll keep our emails confidential, yes?

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What do you mean “keep your emails confidential”?

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I was planning on using my personal email as it’d be easier but I usually don’t use it online. Just wondering if you would use emails for anything else! (Rereading my message I sound very paranoid…was not intentional. Sorry!)

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Meaning: am I going to turn around and sell your email address to someone? No. :slight_smile:

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:sweat_smile: Well some sites keep emails for security reasons as well, that’s more what I was referring to. But I would appreciate you not selling my email :joy:

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Can I beta test the game?

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I sent an email and received the login and password but it is not working. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if there has been a mistake in the informations

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Ok! I’m not taking any more testers. However, if you’ve already received login info, please continue testing and sending in feedback.

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And now, the full game is ready for your review! New testers welcome! Old testers, play again and see how the story concludes!

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 forum-name, your real name, and the game you want to test.

DO NOT POST ASKING WHAT MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS. The first test to becoming a beta tester is inferring what it is based on the above paragraph.

(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 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.

Another useful piece of 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.

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New draft posted!

*Fixed code errors in Ch 4
*Fixed “Your Progress” for better readability
*Addressed game breaking bug in Ch 8
*More romance action in the final chapter!

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New draft posted!

  • Contains all the fixes submitted up until today.
  • Lets you choose NPCs’ names and genders, which probably introduced more bugs, in particular subject verb agreement bugs.
  • Still at work on a fix for some stats issues, but fixes are coming/this isn’t player facing.
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Also, five more invites have been sent out.

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New draft posted!

  • Fixed the _drain problem that Blue Phoenix discovered in every single circumstance where you could lose aura, vigor, or renown, oh boy that was embarrassing.
  • Cleaned up pronouns/multireplace errors.
  • Stopped zombie invasion (dead characters should be showing up 90% less often now).
  • Other minor fixes.
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The games this year have a bit of a zombie problem… I remember some people encountering zombie!jenny in OpenSeason, I believe RaV and CoM had this for a draft or so too IIRC.
Should we start hoarding supplies?

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