You mentioned the animator's name was Julian, is he the guy who does the co-optional podcast animations, because I remember TB mentioning their animator's name was Julian?
Yessss.
I absolutely adored the Biscuit Federation's animation style, so I went looking for a studio or individual who could do something similar. Eventually I wound up having a "duh" moment and just went straight to Julian. Awesome guy.
You forgot the legion of rabid Arcen fans just waiting to get into the testing phase.
Ya know, what always gets me about this is how many there are that do this not just for one game, but that keep sticking around and doing it each time a new one comes out, usually with quite alot of effort and time put in by most. That's not something I see very often, really.
That gets
me, too. Holy smokes I take that as a huge compliment.
I enjoy doing beta testing. I'd actually like to someday see a title developed start to finish, rather than from a beta to finish standpoint. There was a series of articles written during the development of Hidden Path's "Defense Grid 2" that covered aspects of the development process, and I found it very interesting.
Most of the way through, the game isn't really in a playable state, and a lot of the stuff is in my head. But I do get what you're saying, and... the idea intrigues me in a lot of ways. It's a lot more fun once you guys are around.
Then again... there's also something really important about solitude for a while, in a design sense. If you think of writing an essay for a class, it's like the period where you make the rough draft, pausing periodically as you go, and getting it all out and occasionally making cuts and drastic shifts as you do. Having your professor standing over you making little noises or giving you full-out feedback would be... some level of hell, in a certain sense, I guess?
But that analogy only holds up so well. I don't know which force would win out, if you see what I mean: the creativity of groups and the value of having people to bounce ideas off of, or the sense of being watched while "still practicing," so to speak. I know some AAA teams have testers practically from the start; I'm not sure how they manage that. They also have much more rigid design docs, too, though. And in general more staff to be receptors for said feedback.
I don't know. It's interesting to think about.
I
definitely do use you guys on the forums as a way of bouncing ideas around, though. Many of you guys have already helped to shape the game in various ways without even seeing it. That's obviously the case when I specifically solicit ideas, sure. But in other cases we're just talking about game features, and I'm explaining this or that. Sometimes somebody misunderstands what I mean and their misunderstood version is actually better.
Other times you guys get really excited about something I mention in an offhand fashion, and that surprises me and gets me to think more about that area. That excitement can be infectious. And there's a variety of other things that really create a lot of that back and forth inspiration for me, too. When I do these big posts about ways the game works in advance of actually releasing the game, it's surprisingly helpful what the just-discussion results in.
Here though, testing just isn't testing. There is a lot of back and forth between Chris, Keith and us testers. It's a level of interaction I haven't found anywhere else really. They let us really be a part of making the game. How often can you say that? How many games have you played with a "misery" difficulty level? 
I think the answer is... maybe 3 games?
Skyward, Bionic, and TLF all do, if I'm not mistaken, haha.
Anyway, yes, I love having you guys be involved to the degree you are. It's absolutely awesome.
There is a lot of back and forth between Chris, Keith and us testers. It's a level of interaction I haven't found anywhere else really.
So true. In other games I've tested or done Early Access for a while, I don't really feel that my feedback matters all that much. Being able to contribute to the Mantis and see that issues are actually being worked on gives a lot more encouragement to actually report bugs and suggest improvements. Even if a suggestion is rejected, it's nice to hear it, instead of just thinking that it went into a black hole.
That's really good to hear. I always feel a bit bad when I have to reject a suggestion for whatever reason, and it's tempting to just leave it in some ambiguous state. And sometimes I do that if it's one of those "out of scope for now, but maybe someday" features. And it basically gets marked as such. Goodness, we've had some features for AI War get implemented in an expansion after they were originally suggested 3 years prior and just sat idle and "forgotten" that whole time (mantis never forgets!).
But yeah, I'm on the player end of things with 7 Days To Die, and I feel the pain of that being just a black hole when it comes to feedback. I absolutely love that game and seeing it evolve, but it basically killed any interest of mine in giving thoughts. In their defense, though, this is their first game they've ever done on their own. So I understand the desire to really hold that first one close. When you're on your first one, it feels like that might be the only one you ever get to do, so you'd better try to do everything you ever wanted to do. After half a dozen games, you start settling down a bit.
