User blog:C3PO the Dragon Slayer/Avian Hunt: February 20, 2008

February 20, 2008
You can fly now in Avian Hunt. Yes, FLY! The controls are not perfect yet, and the engine is still being worked on to allow for flexibility and ability to be used on all sorts of ships, but the basic idea is working well, and I have already had mock battles over Tatooine, Coruscant, and Mustafar (all in space, and nobody's blowing up yet).

Sometime this week I hope to have a control scheme that will at least closely resemble what the final control scheme in Avian Hunt will feel like.

Over the next two weeks (or less, if things go smoothly, which is an adverb I have learned to NOT plan for) I plan to fine-tune the firing and camera, and perfect low-level AI for computer players. Then I'll be able to have an actual game up, after all this time. Think Eta-2s vs. Vulture Droids in Coruscant space.

In light of this, I will need alpha-testers (alpha meaning a version that demonstrates only a narrow concept that is part of the final product, exceeding the degree of incompleteness of a beta-version) soon to make sure I'm not the only one that can handle the controls and gameplay that I designed.

I want Avian Hunt, of course, to be a good game. A good game depends on a great many things, but one quality that is difficult to measure by a programmer is the learning curve. This is why testers are incredibly essential to the process of making video games; they're not just people who get easy cash to play video games all day.

Not that I'm saying that anyone's getting paid for Avian Hunt, which is a completely non-proprietary freeware project that is to be made available to everyone with an internet connection (and proper system requirements), and must be to uphold its ability to call itself a fan-made Star Wars game. While I have at least one tester confirmed here at home, with at least two more expected to accept the job, I do need a wider variety of a testing audience, even if just to review the gameplay and keep a user-friendly system of controls.

So I'm asking Star Wars Fanon users, who have their email addresses in the system (and have access to a computer that runs Windows), to graciously offer their assistance in helping Avian Hunt become a good game. To keep the credits quality and legality undisputed, I need "official" volunteers for testing, and so I won't just upload this for everyone on the Web quite yet. Here's your chance to get an early (very early) taste of what Avian Hunt is going to be like. Just sign up on my talk page and I'll email you when I have a testable new alpha-version of Avian Hunt for review. While I only need a few testers, I'll welcome up to a dozen or more, so you can contact me and I'll choose a few volunteers for the job (I'm aiming for diversity among gamers) to be the official testers. (I would like to do this systematically, so I can keep track of things and keep things together and not be left second-guessing. Remember, I have to do all the programming, modeling, texturing, designing, and writing for the game, which makes me a busy guy.)

I'll soon post a form on my talk page that any aspiring testers can fill out to apply for this job, but don't think all you have to do is play video games. I'm going to ask you questions and give you instructions concerning the game.