How open should the Tech Demo (Battle Arena) be?

  • Free for All - Anybody with a pulse can test

    Votes: 1 9.1%
  • We are all Family here - Open to all Discord and Forum members

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • Blood Relatives - Open to all who have purchased a pre-order pack

    Votes: 7 63.6%
  • Infected - open only to those chosen by the Developers

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11

Purple Gryphon

Cyber Bioengineer
Beast Keeper
Vampire Scholar
Players Playing Bloodbath Demo
Immemorial
Cat Adopter
Ageless
Malleus Monday
OG 2020
Dog Adopter
Grim Scribe
Eternal Champion
Vampire Scholar
Old World
Harbinger
Feb 24, 2018
98
137
138
From the last two streams, it looks like the developers are trying to figure out how open they should make the playtest alpha be. So I figured we could help them out and give our suggestions.

I am ok with all of the options except open to all. From what they have said this is most akin to a pre-alpha build and I don't think random people who have not been following the game closely would understand where the game is and would grade it like a game ready to come out. Part of the blame is on people not knowing how game development works but a lot of the fault comes with many developers claiming a product that is ready to ship is a beta or alpha build so people expect polish anytime they get early access to a game.

Getting bad reviews at this point can only hurt the future expectations of this game so I feel the message should be closely controlled at this point to people who are invested in the product and understand what they are seeing. If someone just saw some of the art assets that have been released they would expect this game to be almost done but then the demo may have bugs or just be limited in scope and then people write a bunch of bad reviews.

I picked blood relatives for now because it is a reward for investing early and is an incentive to get people to invest in the game for the developers. Once the playtest gets to V.2 I would be fine with all forum and discord members getting access.

So what do you all think?
 
What a good Topic you posted here, maybe we can indeed help the developers decide which option would be the most beneficial for the game and it's future.

personally i'm leaning between "We are all family here - open to all discord and forum members" and "Blood Relatives - Open to all who have purchased a pre-order pack" i also ended up voting for the " Blood Relatives " option.
 
Part of the blame is on people not knowing how game development works but a lot of the fault comes with many developers claiming a product that is ready to ship is a beta or alpha build so people expect polish anytime they get early access to a game.

Getting bad reviews at this point can only hurt the future expectations of this game so I feel the message should be closely controlled at this point
I echo these sentiments. Not understanding what they were seeing was what led to the reviewers commenting very negatively on the first Deadhaus proof of concept video ("Memento Mori" is it called?). From my perspective what this seems to be is a treat for the community that has gathered thus far for jumping on board so early. I'm not sure this combat demo would be making its way out of Apocalypse Studio's doors right now if this community didn't exist (I don't know that, of course, I'm just guessing at intentions).

I'm tentatively open, therefor, to anyone in this current community (forums and discord channel) having open access to it since--in my mind--we're the target audience for this demo, but also because as PurGry said, we're the most in-the-know about the current state of the game (outside of the devs themselves) and we're most likely to understand what we'll be seeing and where it's at. Open minds.

Beyond that, I feel like the essence of the accord between Apocalypse Studio and the gaming community at large is that only the full release will be free and full access, anything short of the full release of Deadhaus Sonata is subject to restricted access. Though again, that's just how I'm interpreting the presentation/language thus far.

This was a good idea, putting this thread and poll up. I wasn't aware they weren't sure who to grant access to on this.
 
I do agree that people in general would have difficulties dissociating a limited demo from the base game experience, but at the same time I think this is a good way to build interest and start conversations.

I do think backers should be rewarded, but they are already in multiple ways, and they will be more so when the game itself releases.

In order to minimize the negative effects of open releasing a technical demo to a general public, besides making the state of the game and demo blatantly obvious on every corner of the demo itself, also releasing it only through limited channels. Instead of putting it up on Steam, which is what would be normally expected, you release it in download form here on the Deadhaus Sonata's website only, and you can then post the link to it on Steam and other platforms as a news article. Only those that are actively looking to get to know the game will go after it, and this way you can filter what kind of people gets access to it, besides warning them about the state of the game itself.

I believe this is a good compromise between everything. The more people who know of the game, the better.
 
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I've thought about this one quite a bit, there are pros and cons to each way it would be handled.

Release to general public.
Biggest PRO - gets the demo out for everyone (More visibility)
Biggest CON - especially in early stages it would get the most negative criticism from the less informed.

Open to Discord / forum members.
Biggest PRO - People who get to test it already know about it ( some info on the game - I've seen some people ask general knowledge questions quite often)
Biggest CON - People who get to test it already know about it (less visibility)

Only Pack Purchasers
Biggest PRO - The people who have invested into the game get to help shape the game.
Biggest CON - Least visible of them all.

Handpicked by team
this should be done first anyway and it should be done in house before they give it to anyone else :D

my vote on the other hand was Only pack purchasers, but i would like to gradually see it open up over time.

as an example only
week 1 - only pack purchasers
week 3 - only people that have discord / forum
week 7 - open to everyone
 
Opening up over time is a good idea, Varik. I like it.
 
It strictly depends on what it is. If it is a prelude to the first age then only those who have access to the first age should be able to access it. If it is a demo technical demo of the engine then it should be widely available as an advertisement of the engine but it should not be associated with DHS. If it is a stand-alone demo of the combat of Deadhaus Sonata looking primarily for early feedback on the mechanics then open to all who have purchased the game. If you want a larger set of feedback then open it to everyone registered on the forum but actually publicizing the demo much. Also if it is closed then you should probably put some sort of NDA on the participants.
 
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Family First as they always say. Sure they might not have put any money down but if they took the time to join the forums or discord then they have given Deadhaus more than a passing glance.
 
In general it makes the most sense to test, test, test again and test some more. This is how you make tight gaming experiences like Portal and Portal 2.

Each time you want new eyes on the project because each iteration needs to be recognizable/readable by a new player. By this I mean things like tutorials should be automatically taught to the player baked into the core experience as they become relevant with a constant marker that points them in a direction, which they may choose to deviate from at their own risk/peril.

What makes the most sense is to start with the smallest group of a size that matters (meaning i'd start with the blood relatives size, hand picked isn't really much better than the devs themselves testing and basically gives them another unnecessary job; to craft that list).

Then close it down. Fix bugs, refine the experience.

Open to the next size category, family size. repeat process. Then Open testing after that, which you want because you need to stress test your hardware and systems at a large scale so that your day one launch isn't a disaster. It will always be problematic, but having it so 1 million can't folks can't log in after they paid for the game is a No No. Large scale testing does help this.

What really matters is less who the testers are, and more that the devs A) fix the bugs B) refine the experience based on good decision making about user feedback... Notice I didn't say user feedback because not all user feedback is equal, and in many cases will directly conflict with the wants and needs of another user. Lastly C) that the goal and imperative is to make a good game, not be married to a vision/profit motive. Ultimately the game needs to read as fun, which means tempering and tuning stuff like mandatory grind and similar. Ideally they are able to do that while also presenting some unique new gameplay experiences.

Increasing the pool each time also has the added side benefit of attracting more supporters and members each round of testing.