Black Dragon Studios has finished initial testing of Galactic Patrol Pirates and we are now looking for people who are interested in beta-testing with us. Given that we are so small, our beta testing pool is somewhat limited and we are hoping to find some gamers out there who like to test games and give feedback. Beta testing will start April 27th.

Here’s how it will work. We expect to beta test for four weeks. Each week you’ll be able to download a new version of the game (which will have been updated based on comments from testers during the previous week). Each game version you download will have a three hour time limit on it; however, if you happen to play all three hours at the beginning of the week and still want to test more, you can go out and download another copy. There are no requirements for how much you play, as we know everyone is busy with work, family, and other awesome games to play. 😉 We just ask that you play as often as you can.

At the end of each week of testing, I will send a survey to everyone via email. The survey will be short; no more than 10 questions and many of them will be multiple choice type answers. One or two questions will be sentence-type answers for people to provide information relative to game crashes or any issues the tester identifies. In the survey you’ll have the opportunity to identify yourself if you want; otherwise the survey responses are anonymous. At the end of the four weeks, all beta testers will be added to the game credits (unless they wish to be excluded), and for those people who identified themselves in each of the four surveys (proving 100% participation in feedback), they will have the option to give us their “game handle” which we will put into the game as a computer Pirate. As an example, if you go by Dragongirl (as I do), there will be a Pirate in the official release competing against all players that goes by Dragongirl. We can’t really pay anyone for testing but want to reward people for good feedback, so this is the best way we knew how to give back to our testers. It is of course optional if you don’t want your handle in the game we understand.

If you’re interested, go to the Galactic Patrol Pirates Forum at http://black-dragon-studios.com/index.p ... nity-forum and register on the Site. Then, you must post in the Beta Tester Forum thread so that I know you’ve signed up to beta test. If you don’t post in the forum thread I won’t know to change you to the proper user group and you won’t be able to download the game. Once we’re ready to test (which is April 27th at the latest), I will send out an email letting everyone know that the game is available for download.

Thank you in advance to anyone who signs up to beta test. We appreciate your help more than you know! Let me know if you have any questions.