Playtest-A-Go-Go, Baby!
summary
Public playtests run four times for two-to-four weeks and push about 150,000 players through pre‑alpha builds using Steam request codes, Coupon Carrier coupons and staged waves of ~10,000 for multiplayer; analytics + Unity crash reports catch stability issues while a bespoke feedback reporter uploads screenshots and save files to AWS and creates Jira tasks. That process yields tangible results: an email list that grows to 43,000 subscribers, ~8,000 feedback items, a peak of 2,200 concurrent players and a 93%+ review score, and it forces concrete changes (tutorial rewrite, farm mechanic rework) rather than vague promises.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:23What is a play test
- 3:07How play tests work
- 6:39Running play tests step by step
- 9:09Technical preparation
- 12:58Collecting player feedback
- 17:08Play test case studies
- 24:55Play tests shaped the game
- 29:53Working with stakeholders
- 31:15Building community
- 35:08Results and success metrics
- 41:08Lessons learned
- 43:14Q&A
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