How to get BETA Testers For A Mobile Game
Hey everyone!
Thanks for signing up for our iOS Quote Codes BETA. We received an absolutely overwhelming response and even better feedbacks. Doing a BETA release of your mobile game is great way to polish it as well as start gaining some early traction and followers. In the entire process, we learned some important lessons and thought of sharing with you guys a mini guide on how to get BETA testers for a mobile game.
Preparations
- Right! first things first, its obvious you need to have a kickass app ready to BETA test. Along with it, make sure to have a teaser and some screenshots/gifs done — This is really important as it is the most easiest way to showcase your game and capture the attention of your audience/testers. A nice, short and fun teaser along with some pretty screenshots/gifs goes a long way!
Here’s our Quote Codes teaser again because you have to shamelessly promote your game :D
2. It’s time to write a small description of your game. Don’t make it too long, just 2–3 lines that aptly explains your game and its features. Keep it short, simple, easy to understand and to the point.
3. Next is the most important task. Creating the sign up form. We suggest using google forms as everyone is familiar with it and its really easy and straightforward. Keep this form short! remember you are asking them to sign up and spend time on your game. Asking too many questions here is a big turn off. Just stick to the actual details you need. Here is the sample of our Sign Up Form — https://goo.gl/forms/6p2M92LTMmonp9ws2
How to get Beta Testers for A Mobile Game:
Now comes the fun part. Its time to tell the world about your game and ask for sign ups. Take pride in shamelessly promoting your game, you have worked so hard for it and now is the time to make it shine.
If you google, you will find several lists of groups/forums where you can ask or find BETA testers. But, we have complied the best list from our experience. Make sure to post here without fail!
1. Announce on your Pages — It goes without saying that your first step should be to make the announcement on your game’s Website/Blog/Medium and all your Social Media Pages. Post your teaser, description and the sign up form and start sharing it!
2. Facebook Groups — There are a few super active groups on Facebook for indie games that can give you a good amount of traction and potential testers. Share your announcements on the following Facebook Groups:
- Indie Game Promo
- GameDev Show and Test
- Indie Game Developers (Post on Saturday here with #screenshotsaturday)
3. TouchArcade Forum — TouchArcade is one of the biggest website for mobile gaming news and reviews and its forums are super active. Make a new thread and post in the following sections depending on your platform:
4. Reddit — You must have read several times how important Reddit is to promote your indie game. What no one mentions is how incredibly challenging it is as well. Getting a hit on Reddit is a combination of clever posting and a bit of luck. To get testers from Reddit post on r/gamedev in the following threads. Make sure to precisely follow their posting rules to avoid getting deleted!
- Screen Shot Saturday SSS (Post only on Saturday)
- Marketing Monday’s MM (Post only on Monday)
The Secret Sauce
So you made your announcements on the above pages and more. But, you are still short of your targeted Beta signups. The chances of this happening are quite high. What do you do? Remember when we said to take pride in shamelessly promoting your game. It is now time to hustle and promote!
Start by going through your ENTIRE friends list and note down all potential testers/audience. Message each one of them individually be it on Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, WeChat, iMessage, Slack, anywhere! Write down a short message and personally ask them to sign up. Trust us, you will be surprised to know how many people are interested — they even saw your social posts and loved it but did not sign up. This extra effort/push will help convert several potential audiences to actuals.
Send out your Beta and Collect Feedback.
It is finally time to start sending out your Beta to the testers. The main reason of doing all of the above was to collect feedback from players to improve on your game. So, its important you provide your testers the most convenient way to give you feedback. We recommend using Google Forms here again. iOS and Android do allow the testers to send you a mail directly for feedback but we don’t think this is a good idea. A more structured approach is required to get maximum feedback.
Be exhaustive in asking your testers questions about the game. Construct a Feedback Form that specifically asks them about the core concepts and pressure points of your game. Keep it convenient by giving them options for each questions but leave an open comment at the end so they can also explain their thoughts on the game in their own words as well. Here is a sample of our Feedback Form — https://goo.gl/forms/j9iAjZGaoRZaTijU2
Send out the Feedback Form with a short email thanking them for the time and their amazing feedbacks!
And then that’s it! We sincerely hope this helped. And, once again many thanks to everyone who signed up for our Beta. More news on Quote Codes coming soon!
