The conversation with Zhang Lean ended soon, and in order to avoid suspicion, Jester would not meet him in a short period of time. After all, participating in such political storms at will is not the right choice for Jester, but it is impossible for a person to make a decision based on whether it is right or wrong.

He wanted to make friends with Bailang, and his industry in mainland China really needed someone to take charge, and Bailang, who would repay kindness, was the best candidate. Most importantly, Bailang's official relationship in mainland China should not be underestimated. After all, his uncle was once the vice president of the Party School.

So he was impulsive this time, which may be a little trouble for him, but he didn't care much. In the United States, there is no trouble that money can solve.

The rest of the time passed quickly. Although he had too much work so that Jester had almost no chance to breathe, he was always happy. He watched the games he made were constantly improving and becoming finished products step by step. Although most of the contents of the game were copied, it always made him feel satisfied involuntarily.

Jester himself was not interested in this sense of satisfaction with nothingness, but he himself could not do anything about this instinctive reaction.

For November, the most interesting thing that made him feel was actually his company's first Alpha test to the outside world. Many players who passed the application for "GAME" came to California from thousands of miles away. When reading the information of these people, there were actually Florida and Canada, and there were even several enthusiastic players from abroad.

This surprised Jester.

The invitation to test this time was actually just a gimmick that Jester spent money to play. In order to stabilize the sales of "GAME", he adopted the strategy of free travel expenses and full accommodation for the players participating this time. Of course, the number of people cannot be too large. The second issue of "GAME" sold a total of more than 200,000 copies, and the magazine received more than 100,000 letters, and selected 800 people from the 100,000 letters for the 100,000 expression test, which was a very huge workload.

For this reason, his young editor-in-chief complained to him a lot, and said that he would not plan to hold a second event in the future, and it was too laborious.

Anyway, all the games currently being produced are planned to be released as soon as possible, and Jester does not intend to do any hunger marketing. It is not that the method of hunger marketing is not good, but that his main purpose now is to compete with Nintendo, use time to grab the market, and use works to grab players, rather than to snatch the players' appetite. If you give up the most precious time in order to lose the players' appetite, it will be more than worth the loss for Jester.

This is not the time to attract players' appetite.

Jester only showed up at the first meeting with these players from all over the world and talked about some interesting things about the game development. For example, sometimes a bug was found during the smoke test, but when he was fixing the bug, he suddenly found that it was OK to play like this. After receiving the unanimous approval of the entire R&D team, the original bug was retained as a formal function.

Then start the alpha test.

The alpha test in this era is completely different from the various game companies that Jester experienced in the mainland in later generations.

In fact, this word is no different from the future in this era. The only difference is that there is no systematic process for software testing now, but it only varies according to the preferences of R&D companies or R&D personnel. In later generations, this has become a very complete mechanism. All software will be accompanied by different tests in the R&D process, especially games, which attach great importance to this kind of test.

So, as for Jester, it is understandable that "ET" was a work that destroyed a company in this era. After all, the pre-sale test of software in this era was very primitive, but it is difficult to understand that it can make a game like "Blood Lion" in later generations.

The so-called test can be roughly divided into three processes based on the mature mechanism in later generations, which is also what Jester is promoting in his own company.

The first is the development process test. This test is called smoke testing. In fact, this cannot be called a test. This is just a test that R&D personnel discovered during the research and development process that can replace the previously completed parts. When embedding this new code into the source program, they conducted a test on whether there are compatibility issues.

This kind of test basically exists at all times during the R&D process, and it has nothing to do with functions, just pure code testing.

Then, there is the alpha test. This sounds a bit complicated, but in a simple language, it is a test that simulates the usage status of real users in a controlled environment. As the name suggests, this process is tested by developers or friends invited by developers in an environment that can be controlled by the development team.

These people who participated in the test discovered various problems that may exist in this game by simulating various players' gameplay methods, not just bugs, but because they were conducted in a controllable environment, the problems found can be modified immediately.

Generally speaking, the alpha test is carried out after the coding of a game has just ended and the developer has completed the white box test. At this time, for a game, it has only completed 40% to 50% of the content. It must be that bugs are flying all over the sky and the optimization is not in place. Therefore, the game version at this time can be called a semi-finished product. To be more accurate, it is a semi-finished product that can be played.

After the alpha test, it is the beta test. Alpha and beta are the first two Greek letters. There is no other meaning except the order of the test. It can be replaced by anything. For example, it can be called Alpha test A and Beta test B. It can also be called Alpha test A and Beta test B according to domestic customs. This is actually meaningless.

The beta test is conducted relative to the alpha test. After a game is completed, the alpha test is modified and improved based on the feedback obtained by the alpha test, the test is much larger than the alpha test, and it is tested in an uncontrolled environment.

The purpose of the alpha test is different from the same goal - further improving the game's mechanism and functions.

The difference is that this version is carried out in an environment that is not controlled by the developer. It truly simulates the process of various users when using this game. However, because it cannot be controlled by the developer, the problems found will not be modified immediately.

The biggest difference between beta testing and alpha testing is here. Alpha testing is just simulating the reality, while beta testing is a real simulation. The easier to understand statement is that the alpha testing environment is closed, while beta testing is open under certain conditions.

After collecting the problem feedback obtained by the Beta test, the technical test of a product will be completed. After the final modification and optimization of DEBUG, a game that can be sold will be officially released.

Due to the limitations of the times and types, there will generally be a process called public beta in later online games. This actually has little to do with the perfect production of the game. This is more regarded as a means of marketing and promotion, and cannot be regarded as a real test.

Because of the difference in game mode between stand-alone and online games, it is impossible to conduct public testing. However, many game manufacturers in later generations will release DEMO in advance, that is, game samples. Generally, the process is incomplete, or the informal version of many game functions has been castrated for free for players to experience.

Let players experiment before purchasing the game, whether this game is worth buying.

For example, the DEMO version of "Fighting City" that was included with the publication in order to open up the sales of "GAME", was actually a very common method in later generations, but in this era, it was a pioneering move. Now many game companies are learning about Jester's promotion method. After all, free games are for players, it's useless to play.

This time, the candidates who came to participate in the test were selected from a large number of senior players. Most of these people had their own understanding of many games. Even Jester just flipped the list and found many game designers who were very famous in the future.

For example, Robert Pardo, this young boy was extremely enthusiastic during the meeting, and seemed to have endless questions. Many of the game questions also inspired Jester, which made him sigh that he would not be the one who will be recognized as ‘ALL-THE-BEST’ by future employees of Blizzard.

Although this test was a gimmick for Jester, in addition to stabilizing the sales of magazines, it was also to ensure the company's popularity when there was no game release, but because there were too many games to be released this time, their own people in the company could not test it, so this time, all game R&D teams attached great importance to the reports put forward by these players after testing.

There is no shortage of constructive suggestions, and of course there is no shortage of more creative products.

Before, they were doing tests by themselves. Because of the small number of people, the scale of the test was not large enough. There will inevitably be many errors and omissions, and there will definitely be many bugs that have not been found. After all, games in this era are all burning cassettes. If they are wrong, they are wrong. It is impossible to fix them by patching like in later generations.

The entire test process is divided into three days, requiring five or six games to be tested. Time is still very tight for these players, and basically there is no other activity except eating and sleeping.

But no one expressed dissatisfaction. After all, those who can come here to participate in the test are fans who are very passionate about electronic games. They come to experience these games that have not been released yet and see if these games are like Mars Entertainment bragging so much on "GAME" before.

Are these people all diehard Jester of Mars Entertainment? But he knew that at the meeting where these players first came, these people gave him a very warm cheer as soon as they appeared, and there were even many people cheering his name loudly, and there were also young beautiful players among them.
Chapter completed!