[Sidney Ridley]

Sid sat cross legged in their gaming chair computer as their fingers flew across the keyboard. They were keeping up with a heated debate on Distortion, their local chat server, as well as editing a few videos in the moments they had a spare minute.

Yeash TalonFlame2300 is having a bad day… they snickered softly to themselves. Get ‘em SnowGhost…. Tabbing over, they’d been about to start editing again when a different message came up, one solely directed at them. Oh, Haku…. What did he want? Oh? His game’s almost done… Or at least it was in the beta phase which was better than absolutely nothing. Going from scratch to even a semi-working model was progress.

<That’s great >

<Yeah… would you beta test it for me?>

Sid immediately stopped there for a moment and frowned. <You mean like stream testing it… or?>

<Nah like looking or bugs and stuff… I’ve been working really hard on it, so it should be clear now, but I want someone else to try it with a different system….>

Now… how could Sid of all gamers refuse that? The answer was they couldn’t. <Ok, link me.> And with that, they were downloading the build and opening it on another screen, the heated chat debate having been long forgotten now. “Let’s see what you have up your sleeve, Haku…”

---

Beta Tester Job - 100 word minimum, Sid has 15 Gaming and 15 Dexterity

dYrXPXZOp_

[Ebblow]

Nothing happened!

All rolls were passed.

Sidney Ridley

Haku's coding seems to be working pretty well! Nothing goes awry as you start up the game and begin the tutorial.

[Sidney Ridley]

Hm…. Well props to Haku. The loading screen moved pretty fluidly, and there didn’t seem to be any issues with the frame rate just yet. Sid hit the enter key and immediately started up a new game.

The intro cut scene that started was a bit… janky. The character models were stiff and unexpressive, and the overall lighting was a bit questionable. But that could all be fixed with an actual animated cut scene rather than a 3D modeled one, they supposed.

Hm, a story about finding dimensional keys… Why did that sound so familiar again? Nah I haven’t played Haku’s game before… They started to flip through their avatar modeling, switching between various models and screens. Hm. They really didn’t have a lot to pick and choose from in the customization bit, but they supposed that was fine. White hair was in there, so that was all that really mattered from an overworld perspective. Another enter hit, and sure enough they were in gear.

The first space was a square house layout, the start of something. Their overworld model hopped from bed.

iFrDfXyNp_

[Ebblow]

A random event has occurred!

Roll was passed!

Sidney Ridley

Once you get into the world, it does actually look a bit better than just the model of the character. It seems Haku put a bit more effort into the landscape. However, more focus means more potential issues and you are able to find a section of the home that is distorted. Upon bringing the character closer, it causes some issues with the way the model moves.

(I talked to SG and given the context of the job, we're swapping 'nothing happened' and 'random events' for this job since the better your rolls, the better chance you should have of finding bugs!)

[Sidney Ridley]

Ahhhhh the graphics did get better didn’t they? Sid smiled a little on seeing the detail in the layout and sprites. They walked around clicking on things and reading the various text that popped up. It seemed their character had a lot of fan posters with a supposed great heroic person from the past on them. Classic.

As they moved down the stairs into what they assumed was the first level of the home, they clicked around the living room and kitchen some. Their ‘mom’ greeted them with a simple text statement and then mentioned them heading to the beach to meet their friend. Sid wasn’t ready to go there just yet, though. They were too busy exploring and – ya know— actually looking for anything wrong.

“Hmmm???” Sid blinked as they watched the kitchen of the home warp a little as they entered. Walking around it, they found the sprite was seemingly walking through the floor. Wonder if he had planned to put a basement in or was just … A small giggle escaped from Sid. I shouldn’t be mean… They took a quick screen shot and sent it to Haku before moving around a bit and finding if there were any other ways that they were distorting the model or the camera for that matter.

A little chime played, and Sid blinked. Oh? Had they gotten an achievement somehow or? Oh, they found an item— “Kitchen knife??” Was this a battle game or were they going to swap it with someone in town or??? Well, no need to worry about it now. They walked back into the living room and then out the front door.

The next area was much bigger but a bit blander overall. Grass every which way, a few houses. This was some sort of village from the likes of it. They walked around clicking on things. A few of the NPCs were walking around seemingly eldnessly— which was fine but still.

IQu66Xanp_

[Ebblow]

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Sidney Ridley

Wandering around outside the house seems fairly normal, all in all. No more distorted walls or areas and while the NPCs are just walking and walking and walking, at least they aren't broken. Once you start talking to some of them, though, you'll notice that there are quite a few typos. Haku appears to have rushed that part a great deal.

[Sidney Ridley]

Clicking on one of the NPCs by the house, Sid started to read over the lines. Ugh Haku why did you use Common… they squinted struggling to read it. Kantonian is so much easier to read… Mumbling a little, Sid paused their game and pulled up a dictionary to compare the words.

Oh— No, it wasn’t their misreading that was the problem. They’re spelling and language errors… Quickly, Sid took a few screen shots and then sent it over to Haku and explained each linguistic error in a separate bubble.

The response back had them chuckling. <I guess I should have written it in Kantonian— but Common’s so much more popular these days…> Sid knew— but still. They sent a shrugging emoji back instead.

Carefully combing through the next few lines of dialogue from each of the NPCs, Sid finally headed down to the beach where they had been directed to. There, they found the best friend of the game, a stark emo-boy architype with a stick. Immediately he challenged the player character to a duel. Oh it is a fighting game, maybe… They were glad to see that their player character didn’t brandish the knife from earlier but seemingly picked up a stick off the beach as well. The tutorial that followed consisted of a series of button mashes. “Hmmmm…”

by1W5ZNrp_

[overlordie]

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Sidney Ridley

As you begin fighting, however, it sticks out to you that the fighting mechanics are incredibly awkward- there's no dodge button and you have to hold down the controller to actually get the character to attack! That, and the way your character attacks is much too slow, which the enemy character attacks you constantly.

[Sidney Ridley]

Oh Arceus… Why was there no dodge button??? Crap crap crap… How were they supposed to do this when their character was so slow by comparison to this friend enemy? Sid paused the game and wrote up a few comments to DM directly to Haku before hitting play again. They lost— they lost?? A tutorial??? Somehow?? Sitting back and ruffling their hair a little, they stared for a moment before laughing a little. “Well, guess I’ll have to—“ Oh, it was going into a cutscene anyways for some reason? Sid sat forward to watch it.

The cut scene used the 3D models rather than any kind of 2D animation, but it really didn’t look that bad? Apparently, they also had a wizard friend who was asking them to assist in performing magic? Oh wait, it was another tutorial. “Hhhhh….” Sid followed after the wizard friend to a house that very much looked like a stereotypical druid’s tree house, but whatever. “Oh….” So they were going to collect three items to make the potion with. Well that meant more exploring at least.

KIPTv|p8p_

[overlordie]

all rolls have been passed!

woooo~

Sidney Ridley

Thankfully the small tutorial quest from the wizard runs fairly smoothly! It's simple to follow and there's enough information to help you find the items without it being too easy- and visually the area you're exploring in is really pretty!

[Sidney Ridley]

An apple, a clover, and a pear… Sid didn’t even question the strangeness of this mixture as they set out to find the items in question. There had been so many other games that had included stranger items that it was of little consequence to them. Still, they did stop short on finding the first item by the sheer shininess of it. Wow that model is bright… They supposed it made sense since it was a tutorial but still. Clicking on it, they found sure enough that it was the apple. On to the next two… Which were easy enough to find.

Coming back to the druid’s house, Sid gave over the items and then found themselves suddenly juxtaposed into a rhythm minigame to cook the ingredients into something…. Oh wow, Haku really pulled out all the stops on different gameplay…

A0Dx2bzhp_

[Elayne]

Nothing Happened!

All rolls were passed!

Sidney Ridley

The game starts to glitch a tiny bit during the mixing of the ingredients. It takes more effort to pass the minigame than finding the actual ingredients. Luckily, the glitches work in your benefit and the druid rewards you with extra gold and healing items. How useful!

[Sidney Ridley]

Is this a glitch or a feature…. Sid chewed their lower lip unable to decide between the two. On the one hand, it made mixing a little more engaging and nicer, but on the other, they were pretty sure this was not what Haku wanted. Eh… They wouldn’t bother to tell him about that one. He was already getting enough spam regarding everything they’d already addressed.

Mumbling a little to themselves as they finished up the mixing tutorial and received the Druids Bag, Sid then encountered yet another cut scene— this one a little smoother than the last. Hm… not bad… So now they needed to find their third friend. She was apparently last seen in the woods. Alright then. Off they went.

Walking around some and clicking on everything, they eventually made it to the woods section (which unfortunately was a little harder to find than expected but oh well). In here the… textures were interesting??? Is this a bug or a feature, Haku???? Whatever for now.

yUZBxzzcp_

[overlordie]

a random event has occured!

oopsies!

Sidney Ridley

No matter how hard you look you can't seem to be able to find the girl. The woods section almost appears unfinished, the only environment piece being tree and stone meshes scattered around the map with nothing interesting to be seen. Eventually you can hear a voice through the headphones, robotic and it keep's cutting off, an almost broken 'find me... find me...' playing on loop- yet there's still nothing  on your screen.

[Sidney Ridley]

Where is she? Sid frowned as they clicked around the forest landscape. Was it supposed to be this hard to find one girl? Was she actually supposed to be in the game or were they supposed to activate something? And what was up with this bland environment? Everything had been so nice and crisp and good up to that point.

And then something reverberated in their headphones. Robotic, glitchy, broken. Find me. Every hair stood on Sid’s body all at once. They sat straight up and immediately yanked their head phones off to look around. Nope, no one else was there, just them in their room with this game and their millions of discord connections. Slowly pulling their headphones on again, they heard it again.

Find me… find me…. Find me… Was it on a timer? Had they messed up something up? They exited the woods and clicked around, but the phrase kept coming. The poppy happy music of the town had become dead silent except for the repeating phrase over and over and over again. Is this… a horror game??? they had to wonder.

d2Nj1eIrp_

[overlordie]

all rolls have been passed!

phew!

Sidney Ridley

After a few more seconds of the glitch continuing all at once your screen pixelates and turns to black- before suddenly you cut back to being in the center of the woods infront of a peppy looking girl sprite, beaming at the player. "You found me!" there's the sound of a childish giggle reverberating through your headphones, and for now there's no glitches on the screen, the chipper music continues. It's time to finish the quest!

[Sidney Ridley]

Yikes yikes yikes yikes yikes yikes— As the screen pixilated, Sid momentarily stopped breathing. And then just like that, everything reappeared. They were at the center of the woods again watching a character model of what they guessed was the third friend bouncing around. The peppy playful companion was saying they’d found her and—

Oh… Had that been a glitch with the finding system and it had timed out and tripped up? I really need to send that one to Haku… They wished they had recovered it or even considered the possibility of recording it. Actually, you know what, they’d go ahead and open the screen cam and start playing from now on. Thereafter, they made a quick few notes to Haku and then set about the rest of the game. Hopefully that had been a glitch and not a feature because everything else was so bright and nice.

After meeting with the girl, they were allowed to continue. A small cut scene played with the previous sword friend and this one coming together around the player character, and they were headed off towards a local town. Nice.
lea_XIHJp_

[Elayne]

A Random Event Occurred!

What will happen next?

Sidney Ridley

It looks like the girl has a quest for the player as soon as they reach town. She even gave the player character a map to a hidden treasure nearby. But be careful! There might be monsters around! Just as she was about to say goodbye, the image becomes pixelated all over again and a monster is in place of the girl? Uh oh... better run! If you can see the screen past the pixels.

[Sidney Ridley]

Hm, that was interesting, a town with a treasure. Perhaps this was a tutorial, on finding things in towns wrapped into a singular segment. It is getting rather exhausting though…. Or maybe Sid’s nerves were still a little fried from that one ghostly glitch earlier. Either way, they needed to focus now. There were monsters about—

“Ack….” Why was this little wolf beast phasing through them like this? What was with the models being so janky and pixelated?? Why was the camera flipping around like this??? Sid immediately paused the game, took a screen shot and sent it to him for evidence followed by a comment ‘am I supposed to keep going passed this point?’ before looking back.

Well… until I get the answer… They hit play and immediately regretted it again. The battle mechanics were about as terrible as before but with the added bonus that the monster kept phasing through and around them when they went to hit. They failed the attack, apparently died, and respawned back in their house. “Yikes… that’s no good…” They needed to show Haku that too. Hopefully he’d patch the fighting mechanics first.

dOKNEc|Np_

[Ebblow]

A random event has occurred!

What will you do?

Sidney Ridley

So dying at least got you out of that jarringly pixelated situation. That's the good news. Bad news is the respawn coding is a little screwed up. Once you start walking around, you start bumping into... nothing. Open space in your hometown is in places where trees or hedges were in the area where you got your quest. At least you're finding stuff, right?

You get a response fairly quickly, though, saying, 'Arceus. I guess I rushed it, didn't I? You don't have to keep going. Maybe you can take a peek once I get these things fixed?'