Recently, we've had a couple (literally two) people who've been relatively involved in the process of testing FFB changes before they get deployed to the live server. This has resulted in there currently being a version of the FFB server and client pending to be released to the site sitting a bit locked. Right now, we've had a need to test some changes for roughly two weeks, without any of the people who previously showed interest in the testing process responding. I don't mean this post to be throwing shade at those of you who did volunteer a while back, life happens and I fully understand that.

Having testing being done is a fairly critical part of the update process, and it absolutely reduces the amount of bugs that slip through to the live environment. The sad truth, however, is that testing is repetitive, and somewhat dull and most people simply want to play their games and have fun. Testing and test servers are typically a problem even for larger game studios, and it's not exactly strange that we as a niche of a niche struggle with this as well.

For us to not be forced to "test in production", inevitable causing problems for people, we'd like to find a few more people who are willing to help out with the testing process on a little bit more longer term. We're not expecting daily checkins (FFB development is usually not running *that* consistently), but we have to find a way past the current "lockup" and try to prevent them going forward.

As part of this, we've cleared out the no longer active set of previous testers from the Discord server, and will be restarting from ground floor with the testing team. If you were previously part of the test team and figure that your situation has changed and you are able to help again more consistently, do feel free to approach and we'll re-add you to the appropriate channel.

So what are we looking for in testers? Ideally, you'd have a pretty good grasp of the BB rules (there's very often changes that are affecting very specific interactions), be familiar with the FFB Client and its test mode, and be relatively on the Discord server (checking in at least a couple times per week). It's not the end of the world if you're a little bit rusty, or don't know every little detail of a rule but it would probably mean a little bit more work on your end if that's the case. It's not a hugely formal process, so communicating with the devs (Candlejack primarily) and the other testers on the Discord channel is important.

If you are able to commit to something like this on a somewhat ongoing basis, please do get in touch with me (on the Discord) and I'll grant you the appropriate access. Note that we're not looking for an "emergency testing session" to clear the backlog so if you're not willing to do this on a longer term it's better if you just thank those who do the work instead :)

Thanks for reading!