A nice little idea I had at 11:00 one night. (The title is also in beta.)
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You are a beta tester assigned to this new FPS your company, Spigot Entertainment, Widgets, And Games Enterprises, has been making. The game, called Cooperative Strongholds III, involves pitting teams of players against each other.
Spigot Entertainment, Widgets, And Games Enterprises was formed from a merger of Silicon Press (the "Entertainment," which created electronics and certain electronic media), Igor Games (the "Widgets," a team of eccentric but gifted programmers), and Otter Gaming (the "Games," an indie gaming company) about a decade ago, in 2006. SP, Igor, and Otter joined because each of the three lacked something another had: While SP lacked skill, Igor lacked vision, and Otter lacked money, SP had money, Igor had skill, and Otter had vision. The new company is famous for its "Game-A-Week" policy--50 Saturdays a year (they leave out the Saturdays after Christmas and the 4th of July), they release a new game. These games are mostly freeware (with payable upgrades for certain features and/or to remove ads) or fairly cheap (often with similar upgrades available). However, every two or three months they come out with a bigger game. It will be released as their 500th game...Cooperative Strongholds III.
Cooperative Strongholds was Spigot's first game, a Real-Time Strategy where you controlled a small squad of units, with the players divided into teams. It was mediocre.
Cooperative Strongholds II, released on the first anniversery of Spigot's merger, was better-received. It was an FPS where each player controlled a character, with one player the "commander" for their team. It enjoyed brief success, being Spigot's most successful game yet, until a certain games company who will not be named released a war-themed hat simulator which took most of the market.
Cooperative Stronghold III is Spigot's strike back. It will take the unique elements of CSII and layer on some of the better aspects of the hat simulator. It will let Spigot take the market beck from the other company. And it will give Spigot the recognition it deserves.
If it doesn't fail.
T-5 Weeks (now): Beta testing begins. Four classes.
T-4 Weeks: Bugfixing. Three more classes.
T-3 Weeks: Bugfixing. Finish implementing alternate game modes. Two more classes.
T-2 Weeks: Bugfixing. One more class.
T-1 Week: Bugfixing. One more class.
T-1 Day: Final Beta. Last pre-release class.
T+1 week: First Patches
Here's where you come in.
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Name: What do people call your character?
Age: How long has it been since you were born?
Gender: Do you have two X chromosomes or an X and a Y? (Treat chromosomal disorders as the gender that one resembles, smart-aleck.)
Description: What is your character like?
Bio: What is your character's backstory?
Specialty: What does your character get a +1 on rolls to do? (This represents player skill, meaning that while things like accuracy could be affected, things like weapon damage would not.)
Suggested Class: The class submission you submit.
Name: What is the class called?
Fluff: What is the "story" behind the class?
Role: What is the class supposed to do? While you're here, also list strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities.
Default Gear: The gear started with. Mention any special characteristics worth noting.
-Primary Armament: The main gun.
-Sidearm: The secondary gun.
-Gear: Usually a non-weapon, but can be anything.
-Melee Weapon: The non-gun used in melee.
Example taken from the hat simulator:
Name: Heavy
Fluff: A big Russian guy with big guns.
Role: A big damage shield, with some good damage-dealing potential. Tough, with good firepower, but very slow, especially when attacking.
Default Gear:
-Primary Armament: Minigun. Not terribly accurate, but
-Sidearm: Shotgun.
-Gear: Sandvich. Heals the Heavy, can be dropped for other players, recharges over time.
-Melee Weapon: Fists.
Note that while copying/parodying a couple of classes from the hat simulator is fine, the classes submitted should be a bit more detailed in fluff, and anyways there should be more divergence anyways. No one wants CSIII to be called a ripoff.
Also note that the Igor Games employees were in charge of fluff for some reason. Even if two spellcasting classes and a dwarf have been suggested, feel free to suggest a Martian or cybernetic warrior.
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How this works:
At various points (including after CSIII is released!), the Beta Testers will play the game as it is. They will be assigned teams, choose classes, be assigned a leader, and try to get the victory conditions. After one team wins, the week's work is over and everyone gets paid. (Getting paid has no effect on things within the game and hence is abstracted away.)
After the first batch, the Beta Testers will have their say on which classes will be implemented next. Once there's a clear winner, the classes will be statted and the next week will begin.
Waitlisters will be included in the next week's testing. Or in the next test, whenever it is.
Oh, and please note:
This will not be over once CSIII is released. There's always a new update.-----
Player List:
Female, 25
A blonde-haired girl with green eyes, a modest bust and average build.Archangel play the hell out of CS 1 and 2 even when that hat game came out so when she got invited to beta test CS 3, you know she already booked her flight.
Specialty: Reactions
Female, 32
Six feet and five inches tall, well-built, with a smug-looking face. Smiles a lot, though this is more to the detriment of her image due to the abominably crooked state of her teeth. Sports a large green mohawk, wears round mirrored shades at all times. Much of her clothing has clearly come from a military surplus store. As one of the people who had worked with Otter Games even before the merger, Linda is generally held in rather high esteem among the Otter Games employees as one of the more talented game breakers in their numbers. Her fellow employees swear that she has some sort of peculiar sense for these things - as soon as she sees a game mechanic, she already has a plan on how to abuse it for maximum fun and profit. She can spend hours doing even the most boring, mundane tasks as long as she can get even a second of enjoyment out of seeing the game fail on her. She has an adversarial relationship with games in general, and her testing job is one she enjoys quite a lot (even the monotonous, soul-crushing bits most other testers despise with a passion).
Specialty: Exploiting Bugs/Features
Male, 27
Imagine your typical basement dweller, except not quite that extreme. Not ugly, but definitely not handsome. Slightly oversized clothes that always look like he's been wearing them for a week straight and owned them for half of his life. A mane of unkempt shoulder-length brown hair. Fourteen-days-beard. Eyes of an undefined color. Not really skinny anymore, but nothing spills out. Strange sense of humour. Marcus loves games. He has played games before he went to school. He has a folder full of game ideas (that he never got around to implementing, because he sucks at every factor of developing games). But unfortunately, this love caused him to fail college and get kicked out of home. Considering his background, he thought a job as a game tester would be a perfect match, his hobby made a job... well, let's say he was rather displeased when he discovered what game testing mainly consisted of. Still, he has grown to like testing games, he has a happy boss and got his life in order. Except for his apartment, which is a sea of chaos.
Specialty: Crazy Stuff
Male, ??
A bald and wrinkled old man who looks as if he could be anybody's grandfather. He accidentally became a beta tester, but hopes to impress his grandkids.
Specialty:
Male, 25
James is a Gamer from Sweden who is famous for his video game reviews on the Internet. He signed a deal with Spigot to play-test Cooperative strongholds III but not much else.
Specialty: Accuracy
Male, 32
A somewhat racist veteran who works out to show off his muscles and scars. He boasts overly about his time in Afghanistan and doesn't like midgets for some reason.
Specialty: Advancing
Male, 21
Tends to be very sheepish around women, but does not get along with males. He has an allegedly secret addiction to chocolate. he spent most of his time playing real time and turn based stratagy games and shyed away from first-person shooters. After 5 years trying to look for a job, he gave up and then, while working on a certification for networking management, suddenly one at SEWAGE oppened up. Young and still enamored with gaming, he said, 'why not'? Took the risk, and got the job.
Specialty: Planning
Male, 18
Joseph, or Joe as he insists everyone calls him, is a self proclaimed 'Master Gamer.' He has played every game, every spin-off, heck, every interactive adventure there is. As a result he knows all the tricks, all the tips, and all the tactics. Joseph always liked video games. Ever since he was a kid, he would save up his pocket money to get that new game, or that new console that was just released. All attempts to get him off gaming failed, and he'd spend all his free time locked away in his room, just trying to complete this last campaign. Not after long, he started contemplating working professionally as a gamer, so when Spigot announced that they needed beta-testers, he signed up straight away.
Specialty: Tactics
Wait List:
Test List:
Test I-----
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Author
Topic: Roll to Beta: 5 weeks til release! Test 1 Starting! (Read 8629 times)