And lo on Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:05:25 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

>>> (But yeah, I'm sure *real* game design isn't nearly as interesting as  
>>> it sounds. Listening to the commentary on HL2:EP2, most of it sounds  
>>> pretty mundane.)
>>  Apparently it's the same with being a game tester, repeating the same  
>> section over and over again in various minor different ways until it  
>> breaks.
>
> Yeah - generally they don't just go "hey, play this game, tell us if  
> it's fun or not". They want to know something more specific than that.

Damn their oily hides.

> Again, listening to the commentary from HL2:EP2, they tell you stuff  
> like "this map used to be like X, but we found that playtesters would  
> get here and not be able to figure out what they're supposed to do, so  
> after a few iterations trying various things we made it like Y, and  
> playtesters responded much better to that".
>
> So yeah. They want to know if the game is fun. But if it isn't, they  
> want to know specifically *why* so that they can actually *fix* it...

Heh I like the Simpsons game that pops up the Comic Book Guy with a cliche  
"Steep Slope Barrier - You would know this was impossible if you’d ever  
actually been outside."

> (And I'm sure they also have other people who just play and play and  
> play the game and see if it crashes or glitches in some way. And still  
> other people who try it on various hardware. And yet others who try to  
> climb out of the levels or throw switches in the wrong order to see what  
> happens. Damn, making games has gotta be real expensive...)

Well let me think. I've got trapped in Oblivion unable to climb back over  
some (really small) rocks, again in Oblivion I can't deal with a character  
because I refused a request of his despite the fact I'm disguised so he  
shouldn't know it's me. I've slipped through a seam in the world in  
Resistance FOM. Skipped the entire penultimate level in Jak and Daxter by  
accident.

I've laughed out loud at the pathetic AI in Killzone that allowed me to  
snipe a group of enemies without any of them noticing. In reverse got  
annoyed with the AI in Mercenaries that had every enemy pinpoint my  
location as soon as I shot someone from a distance of half a mile away,  
and I've defeated the big bad in Lego Star Wars in about 10 seconds due to  
an AI bug.

Sometimes you can say 'yeah okay I'm not surprised that got missed' but at  
other times you've got to wonder who was testing the game. I'm still  
wondering how either TimeShift or Haze managed to get released with the  
state they're in.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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