The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Compass Rose]

As someone who is playtesting titles, it is damn hard to find mistakes.
I believe the Blitz community has guys who could start a team and bring there pet projects/battles to life if they knew that that title was not being worked on.

I'm not sure if you are referring to the point that you are currently play testing or have been on play testing teams in the past however, from my experience it is not hard to find "problems" or "issues". Some guys may be "experts" in the historical side of a battle and they know what forces and leaders were present and which ones arrived from the North on a certain date and which ones arrived South on a certain day, etc. Other guys may be experienced in the mechanics of the game. You may have members on a test team who are just "regular" guys who just like to play and don't have a clue about the historical side of a battle. Some guys may enjoy testing large scenarios or campaign games and others may only prefer testing medium and small sized scenarios. Any way you look at it, the time to find problems and issues is before a release, not after.

There also is more to play testing then just play testing the scenarios. You normally have alot of additional items that need to be looked at to make sure they are correct. Such items may include proofreading game manuals, reviewing in-game menus and menu graphics, location charts, weapon charts, game maps, getting started walk-throughs, parameter charts, unit graphics, etc. So until the "fat lady sings", there is always something that needs to be looked at. And depending on how many new builds are released to the playtesters, several of the items that were already looked at and/or tested will need to be re-tested/looked at multiple times.

So from my experience, it is impossible to go through all of that and not find anything that needs attention.

John Tiller has a very strong track record of releasing good quality games right from the start. You do not see them releasing titles that have been half-ass play tested and full of bugs because they were forced to release a title just because of a "due date" that they promised the public, like alot of other companies do. So even if this new PzB title is delayed, rest assured it will be another good quality game that we can enjoy playing for years and years to come.