Found the "you need people who don't know what they're doing" comment quite funny. This is precisely what you DON'T need.
The primary quality that your 'testers' will need, is time to actually do some testing. Five minutes followed by a "works OK here!!" post is nowhere near enough.
You need to draw up test plans covering all aspects of the game you want to have tested. Give these to your testers and get them to check things off as they test them. You know where you game is most likely to break so you can get testers to concentrate on those areas if you want.
You'll also want your testers to play the game sans test plan, as they may come across issues you hadn't thought of.
You also need to give your testers some means of reporting bugs clearly and consistently. Taking the above post as an example; "When approaching the enemy base, the program shut down and displayed a 'memory access violation'", I'd want to know:
1. Which base if there's more than one?... and...
2. ...does it happen approaching all bases?
3. What else was going on at the time?
4. How many times (out of, say, 5) does this happen?
...and so on.
Also, way up your priority list should be compatibility tests. There is absolutely no point at all harvesting testers from here, since most have higher-end systems which Average Joe simply does not have.
I can't pay people either. I have a handful of people I occasionally get to look at the game and give me an honest opinion. Other than that, I have family that test my game, plus I do most of the structured testing myself. Other than me, there's probably about 8 or 9 people I know I can rely on to give the game a good hammering when I need them to.
The primary quality that your 'testers' will need, is time to actually do some testing. Five minutes followed by a "works OK here!!" post is nowhere near enough.
You need to draw up test plans covering all aspects of the game you want to have tested. Give these to your testers and get them to check things off as they test them. You know where you game is most likely to break so you can get testers to concentrate on those areas if you want.
You'll also want your testers to play the game sans test plan, as they may come across issues you hadn't thought of.
You also need to give your testers some means of reporting bugs clearly and consistently. Taking the above post as an example; "When approaching the enemy base, the program shut down and displayed a 'memory access violation'", I'd want to know:
1. Which base if there's more than one?... and...
2. ...does it happen approaching all bases?
3. What else was going on at the time?
4. How many times (out of, say, 5) does this happen?
...and so on.
Also, way up your priority list should be compatibility tests. There is absolutely no point at all harvesting testers from here, since most have higher-end systems which Average Joe simply does not have.
how do I get testers who;
If they have a gameplay or technical problem or suggestion, can write about it in a reasonably coherent fashion.
Will spend time trying to 'break' the game.
Will make reasonable suggestions rather than suggestions that would require a rewrite, such as 'I think the tank should be able to fly around and shoot things because that would be cool!'
Won't distribute it to everyone on the net.
And there's the stumbling block. People generally will not give you their time, and assuming that you aren't in a position to pay people a wage, you'll have to make the best of your available resources; i.e. friends/family etc.If they have a gameplay or technical problem or suggestion, can write about it in a reasonably coherent fashion.
Will spend time trying to 'break' the game.
Will make reasonable suggestions rather than suggestions that would require a rewrite, such as 'I think the tank should be able to fly around and shoot things because that would be cool!'
Won't distribute it to everyone on the net.
I can't pay people either. I have a handful of people I occasionally get to look at the game and give me an honest opinion. Other than that, I have family that test my game, plus I do most of the structured testing myself. Other than me, there's probably about 8 or 9 people I know I can rely on to give the game a good hammering when I need them to.