Making the Beta Better

We’re now one month into beta testing. The people who have provided feedback have been very helpful, identifying bugs, graphical glitches and typos, as well as providing useful comments on the gameplay and writing. Crucially, people have been enjoying the game, which I find encouraging. This past month, I’ve been fixing bugs, adding art and making various improvements to different scenes, based on the feedback I’ve been receiving as well as my long ‘to-do’ list that I’ve had since before the beta started.

Fixed a problem with the in-game menu (wich turned out to be a problem I caused when adding a ‘beta’ overlay to the screen. Whoops.):

Improved the background in the bathroom:

Fixed some code:

At this point, the vast majority of ‘high-priority’ tasks have been completed. What remains is a list of improvements that, while not strictly necessary, would enhance the experience for the player. Naturally, I care about the quality of the game, so I’m not going to release it until I’ve made it as good as I think it can be (within reason, of course – I could spend the rest of my life working on The Last Time and still not be 100% satisfied with it. And, who knows if pixel art will still be viable at the end of this century?). It’s no secret that development has gone on beyond my initial expected date of delivery – at this point, I’m aiming to release the game in August. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to finish fixing / improving the game and prepare marketing materials by then – also, because I’ve been working at a school for my day-job, I’ll be on holiday over the summer, so will have the time I need to release the game and then deal with any ensuing player support and marketing stuff (this is, of course, assuming that some people will buy the game. Which they might not. I’m not going to make any assumptions ^^).

Thanks again for being a part of this journey with me. It’s made the whole experience a bit less lonely.

Best regards, Daniel