closed beta 1 released!

just a quick one here
5/25/06 - beta 1 for both shelled and sploidz has been sent out!
this is the first time the games have been publically playable since prealpha at IGC 7 months ago
it went out to about 40 people for a first testing of the waters
my primary concern is technical playability (that is, bugs, hardware compatibility, does it crash, etc)
my secondary concern is actual playability (controls, fun factor, etc)
it's good to start with a smaller pool of testers so that if any big unexpected things come up we can address them on a small scale, without being like "whoa, 200 people saw that"
I set up some simple PHP feedback forms, "rate the game, would you suggest it, etc" to collect data for both
so now it's time to sit back and wait for the feedback to roll in
(while beta2 is earnestly worked on in the background of course)
also, I'm heading to GG with a keg tomorrow afternoon for a friendly unofficial play test over there
so that should be fun too

anyway, benchmark moment, had to be documented
it's all uphill from here :)

josh

p.s. big thanks to gary preston for working in earnest to see this 5/25 beta release for shelled! thanks also to andreas kirsch for the same for sploidz.