Yep. I wonder why the developers and testers didn’t find it annoying to replay these sections again and again …
Back in the days it was called boot param.
Edit: Also in full playthroughs every section was repetitive for those testers…
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I get that people working on the game would assume it feels tedious because they’ve been working on it for so long, but yeah, you’d think playtesters would claim otherwise. I wonder how many playtesters actually went back and played it through with all characters, though. That’s the point it got tiresome to me (this is my third playthrough).
I assume that they had the option to “jump” to each section in the game. But the testers had to play the game at least once like the players do.
For me the second playthrough was already annoying. 
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Aw man, I do feel sorry for this guy though.
Discourse is telling me off for too many replies in a row now. I do apologise. Mr Discourse, sir.
Edit: finally finished! There are a lot of achievements on Steam. Only got 44% of them. There’s no way I’m touching it again for a while though. But still one of my favourite games 
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I think, it depends on how much time has passed since your first playthrough. This might apply to point & click games as well.
I guess that playtesting a game always gets annoying somewhere down the road, because you have to replay the game again and again (similar to Sysiphus) since it’s your job and someone just has to do it - even if you think you’re knowing any detail of the game.
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Of course! I have to add that I re-played the game right after the first playthrough.
Yes, that’s true. But while playing the whole game over and over again, the testers will notice the most annoying things more drastically. And it’s likely that those outstanding things will annoy the players too. In the example of The Cave the testers had to (re-)play the island more often than the other parts. So normally they should say to the developers: “The island could be annoying (if a player plays the game again).”
But they never did. My biggest mistake was thinking people would turn around and play it again right away. I figured people would wait a few weeks before trying a new set, that’s what I do. But people jumped right into a 2nd and 3rd play through. That was a miscalculation on my part.
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I played it only once yet for exactly this reason, but I definitely want to replay it in the medium term with other characters and explore the other character-specific sections, which in my opinion are the highlights in the game.
My first playthrough was a year ago and I think I would now be able to enjoy the whole game again. It’s on my agenda.
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I liked it so much I wanted to play through the other characters straight away and see what their stories were.
Second time round: oh yeah, I know how to do this bit efficiently now, which is satisfying.
Third time round: oh this bit again, sigh…
It only bothered me on the third go round, but seems I’m alone in that 
Huh? Isn’t it common that testers comment on these things and/or the game design?
Don’t blame yourself: It’s a sign that your game was very good and the players wanted to play the game immediately again. As @PiecesOfKate said:
That is/was exactly the same reason why I played The Cave immediately again.
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Thirded.
Hmm… I started playing The Cave a few months ago, on the recommendation of this forum, but couldn’t get too far. I really didn’t quite get what it was trying to be… an action game, a platformer, an adventure game… and didn’t really get far into the story.
The beginning also confused me. I could use any character and go a little deep, then go back and get another, then another, etc. Until, at some point, it told me I was stuck with the ones I chose. I really didn’t get it. It felt a bit arbitrary.
From what I’ve read in comments here, I think I understand what the game was trying to be, but I didn’t really get that when I tried it on my own. At least not enough for it to catch my interest in the few hours I gave it.
Then again, I had just finished playing Thimbleweed Park for the gazillionth time, so I was in “old school adventuring” mode, and perhaps I needed some time to adjust.
I read really positive comments about the game here, so I am very curious. I think I’ll give the game another chance.
-dZ.
Testers are used to playing the same stuff over and over again. They have also played the other parts which you have played probably only once numerous of times so they don’t see much of a difference regarding repetitiveness.
To catch something like this you probably need a fresh person to play it and then at least twice!
An adventure game!
It’s just a character selection screen, like in Maniac Mansion, but fancier.
Yeah, but I didn’t get that. I could take any character and start playing with them, and continue switching and going into the game.
That was the confusing part. I guess it was trying to be flexible, and giving me a chance to try out each character, but it didn’t seem that way. I didn’t quite get whether the game had started or I was still in selection mode, or whether this was important at all.
I guess incorporating the “tutorial” or the “character selection menu” so seamlessly into the game did not afford me any ground to grasp to: should I start solving puzzles and dive into the cave? Or should I just check out what the character does? I thought I was playing the game, but felt like I was re-solving the same puzzle over and over with different characters – and I wasn’t sure if that is what I needed to do.
Then at some point (the details are fuzzy now), it didn’t let me change characters anymore. So I thought, oh… I guess the game started now and that was just a tutorial. hmmm… 
I guess I am not “hardcore” enough to understand what it was trying to offer with that initial screen. Like I said, I was in a different mind-set, I may see it differently now. However, I have been tainted with everyone’s comments and descriptions by now. Oh well.
-dZ.
Seems to me like you got a bit overwhelmed by the games innovative approaches. A conservative outlook won´t get you far. That´s what makes the game an aquired taste.
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Testers should play the game several times in the way it is meant to be played by the players. So they should notice that there are repetitive elements (even if they have played the parts of the game numerous times before).
Yes, but this is an integral part of the testing process: Like Ron did with TWP you have to invite fresh persons/testers to play the game at different stages in the development process. If they hadn’t only one “fresh” person who played the game only once, they should have noticed the repetitive parts.
This was/is the first puzzle: To figure out how to select the characters and how to get into the cave.
Yes, there aren’t too many possibilities so sooner or later you have to do the thing the game designers want from you. And then the actual game starts.