Testing

Intro goes here

Finding Testers
Each forum and forge group has their own way to gather testers. Many have threads to post screenshots, groups to get help from, or entire subforums dedicated to organizing testing. These are all very effective ways of filling your party with people to play, but they can't always be relied upon for in depth testing or testing with skilled players.

The other, better option is to take matters into your own hands. Build your own friends list by sending friend requests to people who have helped you test or other people you have met. Join other people's testing games and help them out, send friend requests, and then ask them to help you. People are generally nice and will return the favor after you've helped them test, you just have to be bold enough to send that friend request out.

Organizing Testing Games
Once you've gathered a full party to test your map, it's time to run games. Many people simply run games right off the bat with maybe a few words in advance, but that's not always the best way to go about things.

If you want to evaluate how competitively balanced your map can be in the long term, you need to make sure you're simulating that situation in your test games. Before actually playing the map, it's a good idea to have everyone go to the same team and give the grand tour. Make sure people know the weapon spawn points and their timers, whether the slayer spawns are sided or not, and any other relevant knowledge they'll need so that they aren't learning the map at the same time as they're trying to play and evaluate it in that first test game. This is also a good time to listen carefully to what people are saying to guage that all important first impression.

Then you've got to play the map repeatedly, ideally with many of the same players, and watch for gameplay trends to evaluate whether anything is not working well.

Things to Watch For
While playing the game, listen carefully to what the people you're playing with are saying. But at the same time, be aware that anything people say in the first few games does not necessarily represent what will happen when groups of players who are already comfortable playing the map will experience. When players know where they want to go, how to get there, and where to expect the other team to be, maps play dramatically differently than when players are learning all of those things. Do not neglect the first impression and expect all people playing your map to be experts, but at the same time do not be too eager to make changes based on first impressions, especially to your respawn system.

Over time, it's your job as the map designer to evaluate whether the gameplay that emerges meets your expectations. Use theater mode extensively, as well as player feedback to evaluate any potential changes to your map. Is any area being over or under used? Are players spawning appropriately based on the positioning of other players in the game? Are objectives too easy or difficult to capture? Do players know where to go after spawning?