Have you ever given out rewards for people testing your game over the internet?
I have some requests of people who want to do beta testing. I was thinking should I buy them a T-shirt (like Unity does) or a mug or a bottle of wine? Or $$?
Just giving them a free copy of the game after they helped so much seems a bit mean. After all they might be sick of it by then. And its not exactly going to be an expensive game.
It’s only a short game that could take about an hour or two to complete. So it’s not like I’m asking for lots of unpaid labour.
Some people would appreciate their name in the credits. If it was a multiplayer game, some would appreciate some exclusive skin like how PUBG gave all players that participated in their Early Access a unique shirt their character can wear.
I believe a copy of the finished game with their name in the credits to be all the reward a tester would require: recognition for their valued contribution. Assuming hobbyist/fun/personal stuff, so no pro QA
I’ve seen a certain practice on TA forums. Devs create a contest, giving away a few gift cards (eg bestbuy). You enter the contest by providing feedback. Tbh, I’d rather have a shot at a 100 bucks bestbuy gift card than a shirt.
That’s a good idea with the credits thing. That would also help with promotion a little too. If the person with their name in the credits told all their friends etc. Although some people might not like to give their real name.
Yes, wine might be a bad idea if the tester turned out to be 13!
I mean for 10 testers and $10 mug per tester is not going to break the bank. It would be even better if you could just give them a voucher for a mug on an online store then you wouldn’t even need to post it and the tester could keep their anonymity if they so wished.
I don’t need masses of testers. Just a few that aren’t friends or family (or fellow developers) to give an unbiased opinion.
One thing that might be a problem is if they were just really bad testers and gave useless feedback. Then you’d have to give them their free gift anyway I guess.
If you can justify the cost of t-shirts, testers really appreciate them, and they’re free advertising. If t-shirts are too expensive, consider pinback buttons because, again, free advertising. If that’s still too expensive after factoring in shipping, their names as NPCs or mentions in an in-game book is a nice thank-you, and they’ll want to spread the word so their friends can see them in the game. If that doesn’t fit with your game, or is too much work, their names in the credits is always a good old standby as lots of people above have mentioned.
As far as the quality of feedback you should expect, my day job is software QA (not video games), and I can say that if you want quality QA testing there is a lot more to it than just playing the game. Your nearly free beta testers will be able to report obvious issues, serious blocker issues, and report on what they liked or disliked. That’s assuming they report anything at all. They are just as likely to hit an issue from the start and walk away instead of reporting the problem. Also don’t expect any investigation on their part or reproduction steps.
A typical QA process involves developing detailed test plans, and going through the entire software. When issues are found they are investigated (what built did this issue first appear? Under what conditions does it appear? Is the issue only on certain OS versions or happens only on certain hardware?), and then detailed reproduction steps. This all costs money though
I’m more after things like “is this fun?” “what would you change about this level?” “do you like this color?” things like that. More like opinions than checking for bugs. I’m quite good with not putting any game breaking bugs in things.
Think of it more as a Test Screening like they have for movies. Where they decide after the screening that they’re going to change the ending to make it less depressing. I’m not sure what test screeners get paid. Maybe with a name in the credits also.
Sure, but most people start from a position where that’s not an option. Alas, I suspect that in that case it just means you have to deal with having less-than-ideal QA.
That horrifying feeling when you’re standing behind them silently going “oh no wtf are you doing you’re gonna glitch the door system if you go slapping all the switches at once!”
I wanted to make a simple FPS where single level is traversed from different directions by unlocking entrances and exits. All the switches were centralized in one control room and everybody that I let test the game wanted to brute force all button combinations.
If i were a tester I’d be happy with recognition in the credits and maybe a gift card of some sort. Maybe at best buy or something. Doesn’t have to be $100 a $25 would be good too.
I built something a few months back. Was pretty excited to show it to a friend. Within like 10 seconds he’d broken it completely to the point I had to exit out of the game completely. Was so embarrassing, but also probably good to have that experience.
With the reward you will be the most generous developer of today. Still I whouldn’t give the wine (t-shirt, cap, kaychains, mug…).
