Fantastic Pixel Castle is talking Ghost playtesting --the process, the lessons, their plans for future tests, and more they're building out. That’s the topic on the latest episode of their podcast, where Scott Johnson and Greg Street are joined by FPC’s VP of Product, Kristina Swanenburg to talk playtesting and what they've learned.
Johnson brings up a community question asking about playtest content and what they have already built, how much could someone do, and is it just Blue Zone content for now? This gets them into the larger conversation, as Street says that they do have a structure, but that they do focus a lot on Blue Zones since that’s one of the standout features of the MMORPG they’re building.
These early tests put testers into small groups, drop them in the city, let them pick a class, and then off to a Blue Zone for about an hour and a half. Street says that the current “flimsy narrative” tasks them with gathering enough resources to build a portal to a Red Zone and fight a boss. This aligns with the recent milestone update that they posted, particularly in how they plan to make the zones feel more connected and create incentives for the exploration between them. Altogether the test content is about two hours for now. They’re just getting started though.
As in that milestone update, this place has gave them some new perspectives on the importance of group play, exploration, and even technical elements. They’re looking head t how they can build out exploration.
In the coming months, expect them to focus on what they call “ a beautiful corner” of their game, with the artists working to refine the game’s visual style. This work lets them work from those design templates to make sure they have the right vibe and tone for what they want Ghost to be.
These initial tests have been very small and mostly friends and colleagues of the studio. Not only is this a friendly tester group, it also gives them tighter control over feedback and data gathering. Though, Street notes that this last test had a more diverse group, including Someone who didn't have as much MMO experience but was a survival game fan, and others who were from different countries.
The next test is scheduled for November, And they are considering building out more exploration and Fantastic Pixel Castle plans to start increasing the number of testers, including more by the end of the year, as they hope to be in pre-production in early 2025 if all stays on pace.
