Playtesting Resources

<BODY> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad Software//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 6.0::19990601::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN" "hmpro6.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> </TITLE><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="adastrastyle.css"> <BASE TARGET="_top"> </HEAD> <BODY VLINK="#FF0000" BGCOLOR="#000000"> <H1> Playtesting For Ad Astra Games</H1> <P>Playtesting is important to developing any kind of game or game engine, and triply so for any game company trying to set a series of games in the same universe.</P> <P>Ad Astra Games encourages playtesters to contact us; however, experience has shown that roughly 5% of playtest drafts actually get responses back. Most people get them, read them, say "Cool" and file them away on their hard drives without actually breaking out the parts needed to play. Every now and then, we get commentary from folks who read the rules thoroughly, which is handy -- but one "We played and found X" outweighs a thousand "I read and I thinks".</P> <P>It's also a simple matter that Ad Astra Games is a business. We need to make money to pay for the time spent in developing the game, the resources spent in developing this web site, and paying for server and connectivity fees.</P> <P>To that aim, there are two conditions to becoming a playtester for Ad Astra Games.</P> <P>First, you must agree not to redistribute the game. This is, in essence, playing nice with our copyright and the trust we place in you in giving you pre-release material. If we send you a draft, we don't want to see it on Napster or Gnutella or on your web site. Now, printing out a copy of the game to play with your friends is allowed, as is sharing your copy with your friends so they can learn the game.</P> <P>Second, we need an honorarium. This can be as simple as a $10 (or greater) donation through <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_transaction-run" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> per game line you're testing. So long as you keep sending reports in by the deadlines listed, you'll keep receiving pre-release drafts of that particular game without further payment.</P> <P>If you miss three deadlines in a row without a reason, we take you off of the list. To get back on, you need to make another honorarium. </P> <P>The honorarium need not be cash. If you have skills or technical expertise to trade, we'll cheerfully work out payment in service. Right now, Ad Astra could really use a solid CGI programmer for some functions on the web site, and we're open to suggestions in this regard.</P> <P>Ad Astra Games will also publish a list of currently active playtesters, their email addresses, and the version number of the draft they're working on, as well as their last report date, to make it easier for people to <I>find</I> an active playtest group to join.</P> <P>Accredited playtesters will receive one copy of the game they worked on upon publication.</P> <P>More material will be added to this page on a regular basis.</P> <div class="footer" style="margin-top:6em;"> <P><A HREF="index.html">Home</A> | <A HREF="http://www.genreconnections.com/shop/index.php?p=catalog&parent=62&pg=1">Products</A> | <A HREF="universe.html">Universe</A> | <A HREF="discus.html">Forums</A> | <A HREF="playtesting.html">Playtesting</A> | <A HREF="downloads.html">Downloads</A> | <A HREF="new.html">What's New</A> | <A HREF="support.html">Support</A></B></FONT></P> <P class="copyright">All contents copyright © 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008 Ad Astra Games.</P> <P class="copyright">Any unauthorized reproduction or third party alteration of the content, including redirection or addition of hyperlinks, will be prosecuted as a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.</P> <P>Web site problems? Questions? Contact <A HREF="mailto:design@adastragames.com">design@adastragames.com</A>.</P> </div> <div class="footer"> <p class="copyright"> Last Modified on: Wednesday, 14-Nov-2007 16:54:46 CST </p> </div> </BODY> </HTML> </BODY>