Beta-testing your own game...

I have a dumb question...

Is there a more efficient way of testing your own game without playing the whole thing through? I know I can move my player to whatever room before starting the test, but with all of the flags and item transfers, I feel like I am forced to start my game right near the beginning. For example... a large junk of my game requires a secondary character to do things the primary character cannot do. And they kind of take turns. Primary does this, second then needs to do that. Secondary needs to get a certain item so that primary can achieve a certain task. I could save a separate game file and move all of my "non-warehouse" items into one active room, but is that overkill and will it clutter up all my flags?!? I could open the .aslx file in two separate windows... game test in one and have the code in another? I just hate testing my game and running into an error (30 minutes in) that doesn't let my game progress - then I have to back out, fix it, then restart all over again. I'm not sure there is a way around it, right?

And what the hell is the "debugger" all about? I haven't found a way to make it useful yet.

How do you all deal with testing your own game (especially those that are quite large and dynamic)?

XanMag

Aside from really ingenius~advanced~expert game design and~or coding ability (making your game more easily testable) and using the tricks you already know, I don't think that there's too much more you can do, aside from creating~using:

Walkthroughs (I never made~used one myself, so I can't help you with them):

http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... oughs.html
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... oughs.html
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/ ... rough.html

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I too don't really understand debugging features, I don't understand how they're used to troubleshoot issues~errors~problems~bugs~etc, sighs. I should know how to use debugging too, as I'm trying to learn to code and am (just starting in) pursuing a career in IT~Computer~networking~programming~etc, laughs, sighs. I could use some help with using quest's debugging feature along with XanMag

As HK says, walkthroughs are the solutions (bottom of the left pane). Create a new one, give it a name then hit record. You will go in game, and can play as normal. When you hit an error, stop, and all your commands to that point will be recorded in a list. Fix the bug, hit play, and you will go to the same place to test. If it works, hit record, and you will go to the same place, and can then add more commands as you play on through the game.

Ah. I made a walk-through for part 1, but only did so to have a record to beat the game. I will definitely try and use that. Should help tremendously. Thanks both!