The closed beta for Aniimo is underway, but I was surprised — and honestly disappointed — not to be among those invited. As someone who has spent years helping developers find bugs, exploits, and “hotspots” others tend to miss, I know I could bring real value to the process.
My Experience Speaks for Itself
Over the years, I’ve put in the work across a number of games and studios:
- Aion (NCSoft): Shut down over 5,000 bots in a month through active reporting and monitoring their behavior. The system flagged them as safe, meaning they were undetectable. However, you can fake a lot, but not the way you walk or react.
- Night of the Dead (JackTo Studios): Ran deep debugging, provided support, and even contributed lore and creative ideas that made it into the game.
- Deadside (Bad Pixel): Took part in closed testing with a focus on breaking the game where it needed to break and reporting everything properly.
- Woodle Tree Adventures, Deer, and Suicide Guy (Chubby Pixels): Helped during alpha testing, identifying bugs and giving actionable feedback.
That kind of experience isn’t just playing early — it’s work. It’s knowing where to look and understanding how to make a game better before it reaches players.
Too Many Treat Closed Betas Like Early Access
And that’s the other thing that bothers me about how many closed betas work these days. I’ve seen it happen too often: people treat their access as just a chance to play early or, worse, as an opportunity to figure out how to break the game in ways that hurt the experience — by creating hacks or cheats.
Even with NDAs, I’ve seen games suffer major leaks and damage during testing because the people chosen weren’t really interested in helping. Developers deserve better than that.
Still Open to Help
At the end of the day, I’d still be happy to join the Aniimo closed beta if the team decides to reconsider. I know what I bring to the table, and I’d put my experience to work to help make the game as solid as possible before launch.
Until then, I’ll be watching the game’s development and hoping it lives up to its potential.
