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[BlooBaba]

Hey, working on a roguelite with the usual moving pieces. I'm running into a problem where I'm fixing bugs, but given the nature of a roguelite, I have to find a specific upgrade to meet the test conditions.

My initial thoughts would be to just use a dev console to force these conditions, but maybe there are other options to consider that I haven't thought of. Would be dope to hear any other insight.

[Menwyr]

It's useful to have a separate 'test level' environment. They physics are the same but you can simply place interactive objects wherever you like. Then once the system works on a small scale you should be able to simply copy it over into the final system. Some MMORPGs use developer mechanics like teleportation and other cheats to test out specific story elements and locations in the final build. It may sound like more work, but in the end you will save yourself much time.

[yokcos700]

I'm perhaps not one to talk because I almost never do it, but yeah a dev console is a great idea in roguelikes. especially in roguelikes because of the random chance. fool that I was, when I was making mine I would just change the code to give me the required item whenever I needed something.
I can get on board with menwyr's idea of a specific testing environment too

[MrErdalUral]

All of the above + use deterministic seeds so if one of your testers finds an unexpected bug or unbeatable zone you can check it out yourself using the same seed.

[mrferguson.md]

automation can be handy here for verification if there's a way to capture action history + use deterministic seeds to replay sequences easily. for example, having a debug/dev setting that will output a json or something of all player actions. then have a 'test' mode where you can plug in a seed and the aforementioned json to perform the exact same actions.