joker5 wrote:
How long does the first phase of beta last?
Well, I can't tell you how long it'll be for DROD, but I can tell you how long it takes for an MMORPG and you can draw your own conclusions:
Alpha: 3 months. Find the major bugs
Closed Beta: 3 months. Invite some friends over and find the minor bugs
Open Beta: 6 months. Stress test. Push the servers to the limit.
My DROD analogies for these:
Alpha: Designers test the game to make sure everything actually works. AI functions as it's supposed to, graphics load properly... the proprietary stuff.
Closed Beta: Find the people who've never played before, see how it works for them. Fix playability issues.
Open Beta: Find people who've played the original DROD and let them go at it, checking out the monster interactions and the usability of the editor. Test the editor, push the game, poke Beethro with a stick... everything they can do to break the game.
So while I'm not part of what is, in my analogy, the Closed Beta stage of testing, that's how I think it'll play out.
[Edited by DiMono at
Local Time:10-04-2004 at 04:33 AM]
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