Lots of people think they can beta test, most can’t.

Simply playing a level without forethought is only really useful for making sure it works on your system.

That in itself is important if enough people do it, but there’s so much more to beta testing than that.

Ideally, a beta testers not only highlights issues but, if possible, offer solutions. Of course, this depends on the issues involved and the testers.

Below are the ways I test some levels sent to me. I don’t have time to do all of them for all levels I am asked to test, but I try.

I am posting this article simply to stimulate discussion about testing techniques NOT to offer my services as a tester.

So, here are 7 ways I beta test a map.

Don’t forget to add your own in the comments.

You receive a radio message about an impending attack.

Follow the instructions and save yourself.

Stay alert and don’t dawdle!

None of my “real” friends, and by real I mean people I see in real life, play video games. We do other stuff together; we play Frontenis, walk up Anboto or just relax at the beach.

But what I would really like to do is have some friends over and play some SP mods or games and experience the interaction of others who love it as much as I do.

DoorVille is the first in a series of 6 mapping competitions lasting ten days each. The objective was to select ANY locked door from HL2, Ep1 or Ep2 and give the player a chance to find out what’s behind it.

Locked doors are a very important part of all Half-Life games. They control the player’s flow through a level.

Sometimes they tease you with a glimpse behind some glass, other times you hear sounds, but in all cases they are telling you “You are not wanted here!”

Well, now that is changed. Dare you find out what’s behind the door?

Starting in a small office you must keep moving in the hope of finding an escape route.

Moving forward is actually the hardest part in this mappack, as you way is contantly blocked and you must solve the “puzzles” to move on.

Back in October 2011, I read this article called How Valve experiments with the economics of video games posted on GeekWire.

I wanted to write something about it but one thing got on top of another and I completely forgot about it, that was until two other articles appeared, one of which I currently can’t find link to, about Valve pricing policies.

Today I managed to spend some time with Yves Richard AKA Richman, the author of Hazardous Course 2 amongst others and we chatted about the mod and its difficulty etc.

We also talked about the kind of Half-Life players left around and the problems of mapping for Source.

Yves said he would drop by, so if you have any questions, please feel free to post them as comments and hopefully he can answer them.

You are stuck.

Stuck in a room with no obvious escape.

That is until you realize you can remotely control a manhack.

Use the manhack and external cameras to release yourself.

Five years ago I wrote an article called Hammer Made Easy, asking for more or less what Valve are releasing in a few days.

I don’t claim to have been the first to ask for it, and definitely not the last, but it’s pretty damn cool to see it finally arrive.

The biggest problem will be finding the good ones to play and I am sure some gems will be overlooked.