I wanted to know at what point do you guys prefer to upload your game in WIP section? Is it when you come up with the idea, have created a prologue/specific chapter, or do you have some word count in mind? Do you post it when you want it to be tested or even when you just want to share the idea? Also, what % of your game do you make available for testing? How much testing do you prefer to do yourself?
Any answers will be appreciated. I’ve long been lurking in the WIP section so I’m not entirely clear about these things.
The community does all the above - so the best thing is to know yourself. Most demos or posted WiP are over 10,000 words to allow decent exposure but some have been rather small to begin with and that were subsequently updated.
If you want to publish the game-story, you will need to have it beta tested, one way or another - for further requirements you should refer to official CoG docs - at the main page there is a link to publishing a game.
This is again each developer-author’s decision - it depends what you, yourself can operate most efficiently under. I do suggest running a private test sooner or later under the control of email-feedback or PM thread control - more focused feedback can be garnered that way.
yet, you should look into the publishing guidelines linked by the CoG staff too - they offer insight into what they want and why.
Good luck.
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[quote=“DeepPars, post:1, topic:22467, full:true”]
I wanted to know at what point do you guys prefer to upload your game in WIP section? Is it when you come up with the idea, have created a prologue/specific chapter, or do you have some word count in mind? Do you post it when you want it to be tested or even when you just want to share the idea? [/quote]
It’s up to you. I’d suggest having some of the game written first though. 10,000 words is a good suggestion.
You cannot test your game yourself. Certainly try to eradicate as much bugs as you can on your own. Polish your game as best as you can. But you need beta-testers and they need to, eventually be able to test 100% of the game. You don’t have to do the beta-test on the finished game in public, you can do a private beta-test, but you need to beta-test.
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I agree with the other two, it’s better to do it when you are comfortable, if that’s when you’re halfway done then so be it. There are tons of good moments when you can upload it and this community does a good job of giving good feedback when they have good material to work off of. I think the only time you shouldn’t is when you don’t have anything really. Don’t post two lines of what’s not really a summary and say either ‘that’s all you have’ or ‘it’s a spoiler if I say’, you don’t give us anything to work with. Us just telling you ‘good job, sounds like a nice idea’ should not be all you want to hear.
It’s always fine to ask people if they are interested in your ideas, especially if you do have a good working summary. If you need help with how to develop a CoG summary, I always think going to the games that are already published and using them as an example is a good thing to go off.
But as long as you have something for us to actually give FEEDBACK on, then you’re fine really.
Personally, as a reader, I prefer it when authors have at least a little demo for me to try. It allows me to get a better view of the world you’re creating, how you work and, subsequently, provide suggestions or aid as you progress throughout the project. The minute details are up to you of course, some people provide ideas with no demo, others provide demos with little information - everyone has different methods here so don’t be afraid to try things your way.
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I think a WIP should have enough content so the players know what the game is about. The setting, some of the NPCs, and some of the plot should be shown so the players can have some feedback.
If your game is more experimental and tries something new, you can post an idea or shorter demo because it’s easier to fix problems earlier than go back and delete and rewrite a majority of the game.
You should do quick test and random test yourself before you post so there isn’t anything obviously wrong with your demo.
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These sometimes do not catch errors - don’t rely on them exclusively.