Stream Testing

I'm not sure if anybody in the community's ever tried something like this before, but I am at a phase where I'd like to have another tester for Motrya and I'm interested in watching a new player play. Unfortunately, I live in a rather secluded area and don't know many "NERDS" that would be interested in playing RPGs around here.

This is what I'm looking to do:
- Have someone stream the game for me and play it live over Skype/equivalent. The program "Web cam max" lets you put what's on your screen on your "webcam," so I wouldn't have to see your face or anything like that. (Motrya is about two hours long when I play it in its present form, though it could be more or less for you.)
- Comment as you play (I won't interrupt; I just want to hear thoughts and see the process a player goes through in action) If you need an example of what I'm looking for, this is a video of a guy trying to solve a puzzle in King's Quest VI.
- Ask me questions / perhaps have some questions asked about the game afterward.

No big deal, right? I honestly hope this doesn't sound creepy, and really, don't be embarrassed about your voice or anything (mine ain't stellar). This is just the optimal way of communicating with a playtester outside of sitting in a room with him.

I would really appreciate it if somebody would be willing do this with me some time. In return, I would be quite happy to do the same thing for your game or just review one of your games. (I write fun reviews, I swear!)

Even if you're not interested, let's discuss playtesting! What have been your best experiences communicating with playtesters? It's something I've had hit and miss experiences with myself.

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

Hey,

I'd be more than happy to do this - sounds similar to psychological experiments I took part in last year at university. I live in NZ, so timezones could be an issue. Let me know when suits you, as for myself the hours I'd prefer to do this are:

Sunday after 10pm NZ time...
Monday and Thursday between 11am and 4pm , or after 10pm..

Let me know if this is suitable for you.

Cool. I'm at EST, which I believe is +6 hours from you.
Sunday at 4 am EST would be rough, but I can totally do

Monday/Thursday at either one of those times (11am and 4pm your time). If you want to try Monday at 11, that'd do nicely. My work ends at 6, but is usually dead enough in the last hour that I'll be able to pay attention.

Newbie Power (graphics guy) might also be interested in watching, but his schedule's usually pretty hit and miss so maybe not. No big deal if he can't make it.

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

11am monday (tomorrow) sounds good. What's your Skype username? I'll have to set one up when I get home from work tonight

It's jsh357

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

Cool, I'll see you around that time then d=

It was a success!

By the way, this is an incredibly helpful method of testing, anyone reading this thread. If you can ever arrange it, you truly should.

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

I had a lot of fun, and I have to say anyone looking to top this in the HotOHR contest has their work cut out for them!

All in all, great effort and I can't wait till the next update

And I am now almost done with the updates I came up with based on this testing! Woo hoo!

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

I listened to a recorded of the MP3 last night. Thank you for positive comments, but the graphics are far from perfect and I expect at least one person to criticize them once the game comes out.

JSH forgot to point out that there are portraits in the status screen.

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<TheGiz> oh hai doggy, oh no that's the straw that broke tjhe came baclsb

He found the portraits when he checked the status screen, heh.

Whether or not to include them was one of those things we decided pretty adamantly about. I am of the opinion that they are really unnecessary and it depends on the game. Older RPGs hardly ever used portraits, and I liked them just fine. With the amount of dialogue in Motrya, I don't think cluttering up the box with graphics is that great of an idea. Some people might disagree, naturally. We can always add them in if we really want to, but it will take weeks of work (and hundreds more boxes) to make it look consistent.

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My website, the home of Motrya:
http://www.jshgaming.com

I think that's about right. Portraits in text can be distracting, and if you don't have them for every single NPC, you are basically putting a sign in front of the player saying, "This person is important to the story because he or she has a picture!"

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