I play a lot of quests, have made a few. I would sometimes do a longer, more challenging quest, but I would want to know ahead of time. I sometimes just a few minutes to play on vmk, and don't want to have to start a quest I won't have time to finish.
I, too, would enjoy knowing when you are up and running, or if you want "testers".
I agree with the suggestion to try a couple of smaller, easier quests first. Without your big prizes. I find it has gotten easier to write quests as I do them. Playing with the order of your tasks, where the items will be, wording with the annoying VMK dictionary, and the quirks of the quest machine itself, becomes easier with practice.
Couple of things that I find really annoying on quests:
-if I make a mistake and have to go back a few tasks, make it so I can. In other words, if I have to ride all fifteen rooms again, that would be really really annoying. (One way to do that is with filler tasks, like "That was great! Now smile", and "Are you having fun, then dance!")
-if I do have to go back to a previous room, because i got a task wrong, please have a way to do that. An escape door that takes me back, or some such. Don't assume I can just look for your title and room search, because sometimes once I start a quest, but everyone has left and the room is empty.
-don't ask me things only you and your friends know. Like what is your favorite food.
-don't have me say your title if I'm not in your quest machine room. If your not on my friend list I
can't unless I go back to the room you are in. And if you are not there in your room and your room is empty I can't get back in to complete the quest
-try to avoid dictionary dance as much as possible. Sometimes I flat can't figure out what the author is trying to say.
-along those lines, if you have me say something, please have it be logical, and spelled correctly. Keep the puncutation out of the required words, unless you tell me what to say exactly. (example
dont, is not the same as
don't)
-I found if you have someone find a quest item (gem, clover, etc), the next task should be have them move off of it, like to sit down. Otherwise, if you have them answering questions, or dancing, emoting, etc. they will just stand on the item and the next player can't find it. Another way to help with this is do mulitple items, hide more items then required to find. Like you place 8 horseshoes, but have the task only need to find 6 of them.
-If you have an quest item to find after a ride teleporter takes you into another room, make it possible for someone to get to if they got bumped off the ride to the room entrance. I have a slower computer so if someone enters a teleporter too close After me, I am the one that gets bumped off the ride. I know better than to follow someone too close, but can't control who follows me.
-leave enough time for those of us with slower computers if you limit the time a task will take. I remember one time a task required me to buy something, but the time allowed for the task wasn't even long enough for me to open the shopping window, more less complete the task, no matter what I tried.
-I prefer to know ahead of time what minigames will be required. And preferably what score, at least a ball park (ie, "low scoring game of fireworks"). I am terrible at pirates and it just isn't worth even trying a quest that requires a high score of that for me as I'll never be able to finish the quest.
The second will help with both the placeholder and slow room load problems. This is to put a teleporter delay (multiple teleports) at the entrance to the room. So the player teleports into a room, goes into another teleport comes out of that pair, etc. Each teleport adds a little delay so the room furnishings have time to show up before the player is to far into the room. The extra teleports can be hidden behind a wall, placed out of view on top of a wall, or in the case of slide teleports made into a waterfall.
Cool Idea! Thanks!
I look forward to your quest!
. Good luck!
