A not-very-secret secret that mobile game developers have known for over a decade is that our forum community is a fantastic place to find gamers that are willing to take your in-progress game for a test drive and offer real world feedback in the process. There are certainly many beta testing companies out there who will charge you for this type of thing, but why bother paying for something you can simply get for free. Plus our community is already among some of the most hardcore mobile gamers out there, so they’re often in a position to give really detailed feedback and they know the types of dos and don’ts for touchscreen gaming. Seriously, it’s invaluable to have a pool of players check out your game prior to release so that they can get it whipped into shape before it’s out there in the world and available to the masses. You don’t always get a second chance to correct a botched game launch, so it’s best to take care of as much of those things as possible before you release your baby.
Like I said, though, most mobile game developers already know that, and our upcoming games forum is a great place to recruit beta testers for your mobile gaming project. On the Android side of things that’s typically as easy as providing an apk to testers or having them go through the testing sign-up service on the Google Play Store. In both instances, it’s a pretty easy process, and I’ve seen many developers prefer doing their beta testing on Android first simply because it’s easier. On iOS it’s not exactly difficult, but it can be more involved. Apple purchased the company Testflight a few years back and now use it as their default beta build deployment service. It works great, but also requires a developer to collect the email addresses of potential testers in order to add them to Testflight and eventually send out a build to those testers. Sometimes players may be apprehensive about sharing an email address in that way, and keeping track of that sort of thing from the developer’s side, especially if you’re trying to get hundreds of testers, can be a bit of a pain in the rear.
Well as spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple is now making that process a whole lot easier. During a WWDC session this week, Apple announced a new feature called TestFlight Public Link which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. This will allow developers to create a unique URL to share with potential beta testers who can simply click the link to sign up for Testflight rather than having to be invited via their email. You can create a link right in App Store Connect (which is the new name for iTunes Connect, the iOS development portal) and can even set a Tester Count limit which will limit how many people are able to sign up for the Testflight build. The service supports up to 10,000 testers, but if you want just 100 you’ll be able to set that limit. You can also create groups out of your tester pool and assign different builds to different groups if needed. You can also disable the Testflight Public Link at any time to instantly prevent anyone from signing up to test.
Overall this sounds like it will be a great new feature for iOS developers looking to test their upcoming games and apps with real world users. As an aside, we’ve recently reorganized our forums to be more streamlined, and our forum for upcoming games now also includes games in soft launch or those up for pre-order. If you’re a developer making a game and you haven’t posted about it in that forum yet, or if you’re a gamer who loves beta testing and checking out early versions of games and you’re not checking in on that forum regularly, then you’re totally doing it wrong. So be sure to visit frequently no matter which side of the fence you’re on, and for you developers out there look forward to a much easier process in getting people into Testflight to check out builds of your games. You can check out the full WWDC session covering the Testflight Public Link on Apple’s website.
[Via 9to5Mac]
