This weekend we held a "Beta Test Fest" for two upcoming independent titles: Our own awesome Void War, and the incredibly cool "Outpost Kaloki" coming soon from Ninjabee.  Big LAN party, free food, and not one but TWO games to playtest.

During the Void War testing, some people got some practice in single-player, but most of the time was devoted to multiplayer matches. It got really noisy during that time as the office was filled with shouts, questions, and lots of trash-talking. The only time it quieted down was when people were busy eating pizza & chips. It was a wild, fun party, and everything I expected from a high-action multiplayer game.

Then we held a feedback session and discussed the game. We loaded up Outpost Kaloki and set people loose on that one. It is a single-player game, and instantly people got sucked into the game. The office became very quiet as everyone got sucked into this cute, light-hearted Tycoon game and its story.  We laughed at how different the office sounded between the two tests. But I think in both cases they were good signs - people were totally getting into the games.

Here are some scary pictures from the event. Unfortunately, the ones of me gorging myself on pizza didn't... um... didn't turn out.

 

We're setting up the machines, but some folks get an early start practicing their l33t Void War ski11z....

 

Believe it or not, that little guy is taking everyone down in Void War! That's Brennan McEwan, son of one of our modelers.

 

Steve Taylor can't find anyone who isn't enjoying Outpost Kaloki.

 

Don't forget about the food, guys! It's only a game!

 

Jay the evil overseer looks on....