You’ve Been Selected: A Playtesting Guide

As Early Access titles have grown in popularity, there are more opportunities to get involved in playtesting than ever before. Playtesters are the lucky folks who are able to experience a game before its widespread release. They report bugs and contribute suggestions that help shape the game’s development.

At Human Head Studios, we have two games that are currently accepting playtesters: Rune‘s Closed Alpha Combat Tests and Survived By’s Closed Alpha. Most game Alphas and Betas require playtesters to experience the game under NDA - these titles are no exception. Agreeing to the NDA means that game footage cannot be streamed, recorded, shared, or discussed outside of the game’s official channels. In return, playtesters are part of an exclusive group to experience early gameplay that will be private to the public - that’s pretty exciting!

If you have been given the opportunity to playtest and have accepted the game’s NDA, there’s only one thing left to do - start playing the game!

To set yourself up for success, be sure that you are connected to the correct server - playing on a European server while you’re living in North America will work, but the game may lag. Take a moment to verify that your system also meets the game’s recommended system requirements. Having an older system doesn’t necessarily prevent you from playing a more intensive game, but there will likely be performance issues. It’s important to keep this in mind when reporting bugs.

As you play, there are a variety of bugs and glitches that you may encounter:

Graphical: Graphical glitches can include missing assets, images that aren’t displaying properly, or textures not rendering.  

Gameplay: This refers to a gameplay mechanic that isn’t functioning as intended - a sword not swinging when the player clicks or the player being unable to jump.

Audio: Do you hear a random sound playing over and over? Is the music stopping randomly? These are all audio bugs. This also includes sounds not playing when they’re supposed to, or being far too loud.

Communication: Communication bugs include any problems with in-game chat, emojis, or voice communication. If your messages aren’t displaying or you can’t hear your friend when they are talking, these are both communication bugs.

Server: Being unable to access the server, having a high ping on your designated server, and having the game’s framerate dip are server bugs.

If you encounter any bugs while you’re playing, there are steps that you can follow so that the game’s Quality Assurance team can replicate them and help get them fixed:

• If your bug makes the game unplayable or seems especially serious, send us a copy of your computer’s system specs. You can follow this guide to learn where to find this data.
• What kind of bug is it? (Graphical, gameplay, audio, communication, server)
• What were you doing when the bug occurred? (Even better, do you know how to replicate it?)
• Where did the bug occur? If a specific location name isn’t available, do your best to describe the area to us.
• If the bug is especially difficult to describe, send us a screenshot! Because Closed Alpha titles are under NDA, be careful about where you post the screenshot. Sending it to us directly on permitted forums or chat channels is best.
• Details, details, details! The more information you can send us about the bug, the easier it will be for us to fix it.

After a bug is reported, it is investigated and ticketed by our QA team before being assigned to our programmers. The programming team will fix these bugs and an improved version of the game will be released as a new patch. This cycle will continue throughout the game’s development.

Playtesting is also an excellent opportunity to contribute your thoughts and suggestions on what you feel would improve the game. There’s no guarantee that your idea will make it into the game, but it’s still helpful for the team. For more information on the importance of community feedback, visit our blog on community-driven development.

If you’re currently playtesting one of our games, we appreciate your feedback and hope you enjoy being among the first to play! If you aren’t a playtester but would like to join us, you can sign up for the Rune Newsletter and visit Survived By’s website to register for a chance to play.