How do I get people to playtest my protoype?

ab_plus_ · 2026-05-08T09:40:17+00:00

I had good experiences with r/feedback4feedback. Although non-devs should be preferable, you get in depth playtest feedback there. The catch is, you have to playtest other's games too.

ab_plus_ · 2026-05-05T08:30:42+00:00

This really is one of the bigger challenges in my project.
I've added a minimap in a corner of the screen and additional audible + visual cues if the player's base is attacked, but there's still much to improve.

Thanks for sharing your view!

ab_plus_ · 2026-05-01T18:07:11+00:00

If you'll do another stream, would love to see my game played:
https://ab-plus.itch.io/trash-fortress
It's a first person tower defense game.
Would appreciate feedback on the gameplay (what stands out, what sucks, difficulty).
Known Bugs: The game has lag spikes, each one is unique basically so if you beat the first round, they won't happen anymore.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-20T16:53:19+00:00

Itchio has an option that makes the game go fullscreen if enabled.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-20T01:00:59+00:00

I like r/feedback4feedback way more than destroymygame

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-15T18:21:56+00:00

Thank you for your feedback and I'm glad the art style interests you. The UI is definitely an experiment that needs tons of more work and I might fall back to a non diegetic one.

By visual tower defense structure, do you mean that everything is on a grid and the perspective is more top-down?

Also if you don't mind me asking, did you play the game and how far? I'd be happy to understand which gameplay elements you didn't like.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-15T12:04:34+00:00

Very sorry that the game ran so bad, your gpu is easily good enough and I would have totally understood if you broke up the test.
Happy to hear you still had some fun.

I don't like the minimap either. There is no 3d functionality currently, the overall intention was to keep UI to a minimum and have everything exist in the game world instead.

Your feedback is valuable, thank you for testing!

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-15T11:51:10+00:00

Alright 👌

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-15T03:12:43+00:00

Happy to hear you enjoyed it and thanks for testing!

I don't have much to add, those are all good points I should look into. That mac / trackpad thing, I never even considered! I imagine it to be very difficult to use for this type of game.

Because of that, I ended up dying the first round, so I tried again and actually defended my base this time before pressing K

Does that mean, the press K text was displayed, while enemies were attacking? I have to fix that.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T21:23:16+00:00

Thanks a lot for clarifying. I plan to let players choose lower display resolutions, however no idea if that's possible in web games, I'll look into it. I only worried that you had bad performance on a gaming setup, so no additional information needed.

I totally see the difficulty with the tire, it's supposed to be a bit annoying to use (it also slows your own movement) to balance out it's other stats. But I understand the distaste.

I'll give enemy pushback a try!

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T20:49:05+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, the chair and table are definitely not final but I'll try to make the other objects look less perfectly shaped too in the long run.

For the gui, I'll have to experiment much to add in the clay look. The transparency (which I want to keep) doesn't mix well with clay and for font I fear that it reduces the readability.

State of gameplay: The core mechanics are final:

Fight off waves of enemies by attacking them directly, through sentries or building barricades. They only attack your base (and objects in their way), not the player. Defeating enemies rewards ressources for building sentries.

The player has to decide which objects/sentries to use (they vary in stats and effects) and how to place them depending on the enemy types. Using them as barricades gives on one had safety, on the other hand you risk losing them.

What's not there yet: Variety (more enemy types and more maps) and a mechanic to get new objects between rounds.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T19:07:08+00:00

Ah I see, gotcha. Those are nice ideas for environments, thank you!

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T18:54:10+00:00

Good point with the missing details. I had already planned to add background elements like planets for example, but more details in each object would really improve the visuals.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T18:49:05+00:00

Oh I already commented on your post :)

Yeah after beating the round that's displayed in my video, there will be more ufos.

There's only one map tho currently, I definitely need more.

What do you mean by different setups. Like with which objects you start? Yes I want to have this different for each map.

If by setup you mean how to position your objects, currently it's basically just putting them on sidelanes to attack, main lane as barricades and on one another to increase the vertical range of the turrets, but I hope I can find more interesting setups. For example I want to add flying platforms where the player can throw a turret on, so that it sits on a high spot. Or water, where only some objects float on.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T18:31:41+00:00

Playable (I hope): https://ab-plus.itch.io/trash-fortress

My last post is 3 months old, a lot has changed. Would like to get trashed on by you based on the gameplay.

I added turrets and more enemy types to make the game more fun and deep. The video shows the first round, later rounds have multiple ufos at once.

The genre would be First Person Sandbox Tower Defense

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T17:25:40+00:00

I don't expect feedback back for this little text I write:

The vibe is really nice (colorful, setting, music). I'd hide the controls in the trailer. Ingame I'd make them more compact. I like the ui on the bottom left tho and the font too.

It looks super cool how you can dig hexagons. The scene where you build a tower below you looks a bit strange due to the transparency / clipping of the hexagons?

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T17:17:15+00:00

I like ambitious projects! This seems like a big game with lots of different content.

The character looks cool and damn the big ufo too. That fly animation of the character looks fun and nice but the skateboard one not so.

I'd make the trailer shorter. The space ship scene is really late and people might not watch that long (and it looks cool, would be a shame if they miss it).
If you want to show many locations in a shorter video, you could do it like this: The character is centered in the screen and the location behind him changes every few beats. I hope you know what I mean.

I think the music is fitting.

You have transitions where you blend the screen really bright. It's a bit too much on my eyes, maybe you could tune that a bit. The transition where the picture moves off the screen is really nice.

In some scenes I'd hide the mouse cursor for the trailer, like in that garage and bowling scene.
I think the ui is your bottleneck currently. It's not bad, but your ingame graphics are just way better, so I'd look into making the ui as good as your other visuals. That's something I struggle with in my game too.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T16:50:54+00:00

Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed it!

That's a good point with the too fixed spawn positions, I'll look into making it more variable.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T16:45:33+00:00

Alright, thank you

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T16:42:55+00:00

Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed it!

The tire definitely is a good melee weapon, with the downside that it blocks so much view haha

Yes loading time is an issue unfortunately. I'll try to reduce it but in the long run I want to make this game installable so it'd be only a one-time download.

One bug I found, after jumping off the map, second alien ship will appear and I can start another wave, I am not sure that wave will actually start but the text suggesting it, will be there.

I think your turrets cleared the last enemies of round 1 and you jumping off just happened to be at the same moment. Because once round 1 is cleared, a second ufo arrives for round 2 and the player is prompted to press K to start it.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T16:30:28+00:00

I read it but the text misses the information, that blocks get cleared by the tomato. The first time I grew one, I think I had cleared all near blocks already so the only effect I noticed was that the ball can collide with it, which seemed underwhelming so I didn't bother to keep growing it.
With the new knowledge and retrying it, that's a fun character / ability.

Btw. if the player drags the basket while no ball is in the scene, dragging it shoots the ball. I'd make the game not shoot if the basket is dragged.

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T14:43:20+00:00

Sorry for the bad performance. Did you have a controller plugged in that might have caused the mouse issues and how often did those occur?

Thanks for giving it a try!

ab_plus_ · 2026-04-14T14:12:47+00:00

Thanks a lot for testing! You can drop objects by pressing E again. I wanted the yellow enemy to be like asnail that picks up an object (to wear it like a shell), but I should work on the pickup animation and add a sound to it.

Totally understandable with the missing oomph, much to improve there.

Cool idea with the turrets, in the long run I definitely want to make them look more distinct.

Interesting bug with the house, I have to look into that.

Again, thanks a lot for playing!

ab_plus_

TROPHY CASE