The Importance of Beta Testing Your Game

We're just a small team up in the Kootenay mountains of British Columbia. A mom and pop indie game development studio working on our first multiplatform/ multiplayer 3D game Big Top Ballet.

As a female game designer and game artist I was challenged over the past 2 years coming up with a game design that I was: 1. proud of  2. wanted to play and 3. knew would be fun. There aren't many games out there to draw from for inspiration that I felt appealed to the 'feminine' mind. 

My favorite puzzle game as a kid/adolescent was Tetris, which is maybe no coincidence because I've heard that from a few females and I love racing games but that was it. I've always found that music can always be better in a game and this is an area I think game publishers will be focusing their priorities on as much as game play and art in the future. Especially if they want to reach the untapped female audience of potential game players, which seems to be a direction many studios are beginning to open up to as they realize the market of 2D shooter games is kind of saturated.  

What I knew was the best games have always been created by designers and developers who have asked themselves, what do I want to play? What do I find fun? And so logically I had to reach inside to reflect on the games I liked the most and begin to tap into my imagination. 

Nevertheless, this post is about the importance of Beta testing and getting feedback from game players before an official release. Right now we have invited a selection of VIP Beta Testers to try the game and provide feedback and then we will open up the web based Beat version of Big Top Ballet to a wider audience as we prepare for our iOS release to the App Store this coming January 2012.

ANYONE who would like to beta test Big Top Ballet on-line, we want to hear from you! Email: game{AT}bigtopballet.com and we'll send you a link with a username and password.