About Beta testing

[NazGhuL]

Hi! You're about to sell your game and want to beta test it with total strangers. (Because friends and parents aren't good judges...). What approach would you take. Upload them the game as it is. Make a few changes on the game(Like the DEMO word stick on the screen!). Threaten them and force them to delete the game after the testing period?
Or maybe a little piece of code like:

create event in the first room:

if(current_year > 2017)
{
game end();
}

Any experience?

Anyways they should get a game key upon release. I'm talking about the full game exe file on beta test. (I guess some people doesn't care to give it away, kind of marketing....)

 

[RangerX]

I would indeed label it as a beta version first. Maybe combining your year checking code with a file saved on disk when installing. Or an online check if you really really want to make it secure.
But then again, I don't know if its THAT necessary. I mean, if you are an amateur like many of us here, you want your first games to have more chances of spreading than selling. Building up a fanbase.

My question would be more like, how do you find beta testers? lol

 

[sylvain_l]

Because friends and parents aren't good judges...

what ?... but... but... they are the best ! they are the only one who ever said any of my game was great !


more seriously, I think GMS takes its time value on the system, so if all it required to the player to overrite your "protection" is just to edit the date/time of it PC to some date prior to your timelimit... not sure it worth the trouble.
(can still do it for the principle of course but I fear it won't be very effective...)

to be honest, - if I ever manage to make a commercial game, quite unlikely - my point would be:
it depends what kind of beta tester we are talking about.^^
But if we are talking about real ones, who play the game, give feedback and help polish the game, track bugs, etc... for me they deserve to get a copy of the final release for their help.

p.s.
of course I'm a bit biaised by my experience of "free beta keys, that are shut down once final game is released", and I don't care to get a discount. Didn't feel right for me.
I prefer the experience of steam EA or kickstarter for the matter, even if they don't always end well. and free beta now I just use them as demo to test what the game could be, no more time lost on feedback.

 

[NazGhuL]

My question would be more like, how do you find beta testers? lol

A single tweet... Oh no: a facebook page!..?

I'm pretty sure here and on Tigsource you can find a couple of willing gamers. But i'm not at this point atm.
But on my Bucket List I do have: Create a game and publish it to earn a couple of bucks.

 

[YanBG]

This version would get outdated. If your game gets popular on Steam, there is a greater chance to end up on torrent sites than from your testers i guess.

If you have a company you can ask them to sign NDA.

I would just share the whole game, like i did so far(no time to prepare special demo). People that want to test it are probably into the indie community, not your average player but depends on the game and crowd you go for. Youtuber that will post a Let's Play is less likely to cross you

 

[Micah_DS]

With my testing of Ys VIII, NISA gave me and all the other beta testers the full game via Steam (this is public knowledge - I'm not breaking my NDA). If you're releasing through Steam, I expect you could do the same, releasing the game to your beta testers with the Steam DRM before the game is even available to the public.

 

[MishMash]

I assume you are concerned about people just sharing your game?

You could do something like throw in a text watermark, and also draw on-screen the name of the specific tester, so if things do go down, you can make them accountable. (Double this up by having another variable/index number somewhere else in memory, that corresponds to them incase they get savvy to this and try to change it.). For a beta, it can be reasonable to have some form of basic DRM system, so they have to login. Though i'd generally try and avoid giving it to people you don't trust.

As others have said, if your game is popular piracy is likely going to happen no matter what, but how big of an issue that is, is a different topic. If someone does then choose to release your beta version and makes money off of it, or even releases it for free, you have a huge legal ground to just smash them to pieces. It should be very easy for you to prove you are the owner of the IP, and can sue for damage. Especially if you also throw in an NDA.

As far as preventing the scenario in the first place. You can simply make the initial part of the beta annoying. (They aren't judging the game on this, and you can make it clear). I.e. intentionally rushed looking developer notification screens, click-throughs, popup messages, a password prompt (easy to alleviate, but annoying to anyone who would consider releasing it separately). There are even potentially ways of locally IP binding the game, so that you ask in advance for the testers IP. (Sure, they could go in and change it in memory once again, but its a hassle ). None of these things are supposed to be completely foolproof, but the idea here is to provide sufficient disincentive.
(As far as whether it would annoy them, they are going to be critical about the game, and so long as you are on good terms, they would likely expect a few "developer" style things, given the situation)

 

[Fern]

I'd reach out directly to people in your community (including the GMC).

 

[HammerOn]

Beta testing isn't useful if you are not collecting usage data. There are many things to worry about besides game-breaking bugs.
There are a bunch of software to manage testers and collect statistics of usage.
Without any auxiliary software, you have to at least code some online validation system where each beta test has an account.
In any case, I would be worried about collecting useful data to improve the user experience than anything else.

 

[Andy]

You could have the game connect to a server, and use the server to communicate if the beta is still playable. Anyone who is dedicated will eventually figure out ways around your system. There is no perfect defense.