Development Info Dungeon Lords public beta - no demo?

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Dungeon Lords; Heuristic Park Inc.

According to the <a href="http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php?s=c13e9230ae572cd2f1ddab35e1b1c6e9&threadid=22261" target=_blank>this forum post</a> in <a href="http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=5856970509a3dbe15af7fef9a1005b03&forumid=111" target=_blank>Dungeon Lords official forum</a>, there's been a press release on an imminent public beta test for the game. Does this mean there won't be a demo before release, and why do we have to sign up if it's public? Who knows, but here's an outtake of the press release:
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Toronto, September 23, 2004 – DreamCatcher Games today announced that it is accepting applications for the Public Beta Test of its Combat-RPG, Dungeon Lords. The application process will begin on Monday, September 27th at 17:00 GMT and close at 17:00 GMT on Monday, October 4th.
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The test will include both single and multiplayer components and entrants may apply for one or both. Testers will be chosen based on applications and ability to play RPGs. The minimum system requirements for the test are a 1ghz proc with 256 RAM and a Geforce 2. The application can be found at <a href="http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/dci/forms/betatester/" target=_blank>http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/dci/forms/betatester/</a>.
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"Ability to play RPG's"? Gee. Most of us shouldn't have any trouble getting in - if we wanted, that is.

 

[DemonKing]

Testers will be chosen based on applications and ability to play RPGs.

LOL - reminds me of writing job applications where they list something dumb for a selection criteria like "Ability to work in a team environment" and you have to waffle on for a paragraph about how great you are in a team and what a great asset you are and so on. Here's my response. Feel free to cut and past for the beta test application:

"I have been playing computer role-playing games for over 20 years. As a dedicated computer role-player, I played even exceptionally lame, buggy and badly designed CRPGs like, for example, "Wizards & Warriors" to the end. My ability to critically analyse CRPGs, as I will be required to do if I am successful in obtaining the position of beta tester, is evidenced by my numerous posts on various internet forums dedicated to the CRPG genre. As an example of my ability to provide a deep analysis and critique of CRPG games, I have stated in such CRPG forums at numerous times that the Wizardry series started to get crappy the moment some idiot decided that adding lasers and spaceships would somehow make a game called "Wizardry" better. If I had been a beta tester for Sir-Tech such a clealry flawed concept would have been spotted early on and likely the company would still be in business."

What do you think are my chances?

 

[Whipporowill]

I mentioned working here in my application, so I guess my chances are as slim as yours. Hehe.

 

[Spazmo]

I'm so hyped up about this game that I lock myself in the basement for hours at a time for the IMMERSION of being in a REAL DUNGEON!

 

[Sol Invictus]

Translation: Spazmo's dad put him in the learning box for 2 hours.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

There's a slight tendancy for me to think games that don't release demos do that because they don't want you to see something in advance. Not saying that's the case with this game, but.. When you have a demo promised, it doesn't make it, and they're opting for an invite-only public beta, errr..

 

[Whipporowill]

Well, most games these days don't do demos until after release - or at the majority of major titles. Although, there's been a decent trickle of interesting demos this last month, but then those are RTS's.

 

[Dhruin]

There's a slight tendancy for me to think games that don't release demos do that because they don't want you to see something in advance. Not saying that's the case with this game, but.. When you have a demo promised, it doesn't make it, and they're opting for an invite-only public beta, errr..

Ditto. Especially when they make a big press release, then it's delayed, then it isn't coming. Someone didn't tell someone the current state of the game. I've still been told this one might hold promise, so I'm inclined to think features aren't working or it's not polished enough, rather than just plain crap -- but it isn't good advertising.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Reminds me of Armies of Exigo. The demo was horrible (played like a 3rd rate, but very pretty Warcraft 3 clone) and people didn't like how hectic it was, so they started an open beta for balancing purposes. Ha.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Ditto. Especially when they make a big press release, then it's delayed, then it isn't coming. Someone didn't tell someone the current state of the game. I've still been told this one might hold promise, so I'm inclined to think features aren't working or it's not polished enough, rather than just plain crap -- but it isn't good advertising.

I really can't name a game where there wasn't problems that did this. When you promise a demo and then say it's not coming for whatever reason until after the release, odds are that someone in the publishing house has noticed that a demo would be a "bad idea". When a demo would be a bad idea, there's something terribly wrong with the game.

Just not having a demo is one thing, but having a public-yet-private beta test instead really makes things that much scarier. If they released it as a "tech test", like id software does with some of their games, that would be one thing. Having the beta test closed to everyone but a selected few in place of a demo that was supposed to be out nearly a month ago just rings the bell of bewareness.