The best ways to alpha test a game.

As I am getting close to finishing a map, I am now running into a problem; how to alpha test the map. I don't know enough people with Warcraft 3 to test over lan, but is there any way to gather some people to play online with to help me test it, but keep them from leaking it onto Battle.net?

Thanks in advance!

I generally play with trusted friends on battle.net - If you don't have any trusted friends on there, try finding someone in a forum such as this one. (It's hard to know who to trust, though.)

I don't test it with other people until it's beta. Alpha versions is much better to test alone everything you can test alone, and fix the most you can. Then, you can go to multiplayer testing.

Salutions®

If you must test it with others, you can make safety features, like, that the map will automatically end with defeat for everyone unless someone with your screenname is in the game.

Or, you have to type a password when the game starts, or likewise.

And you'd probably want to protect it extensively.

Of course, all this makes it a little harder to just make little changes, save, and play, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

If it's a strictly multiplayer game, and you're needing these extra testers in order to simply load up the map, you may be able to get away with just setting one (or more) of the players to a computer in the setup screen. They may not play properly, but you'll be able to test some stuff.

Ir it's a cooperative game and you need those other human players in order to survive the opposition, you might want to make a only-for-testing trigger that'll either give you all the units of your would-be allies, or just buff up your forces so they're strong enough for you to survive solo. Of course this is no good for testing balance.

If you are at a point where you need another human to test properly, I wouldn't mind testing out something new. I wouldn't share/steal your map, although I don't know how to prove to you that I wouldn't.

If you end up testing with people you aren't sure you can trust, both making sure someone in the game has your name, and map-protecting the map, will help with that. Though most people around here likely know how to get around such anyway, if so inclined.