Alpha games : invite non reviewer players

[Draasill]

Hi,

it is sometimes difficult to test the alpha games, since only reviewers can play them.
So we almost only play these games in turn based mode, which is not a very good method for most of them.

I'd like to sometime invite some friends on alpha games, even if they can't review the game, they can help a lot testing them, and creating table !

I saw recently an alpha game for which the "group" let you (members) invite people, not only the admin.
I suppose this could be an easy solution, invite friends to the group, without having to contact the admin an requesting access.

Maybe the "alpha" groups could have this setting by default ?
So the admin (dev) can still disable it if he wants ?

It would really help testing the games in a good environment !

[Een]

Hi,

The developer is admin of the group, and can indeed choose to make the group visible by everyone, and allow everyone to join. In that case, any member of the group can just send the link to their friends and they'll be able to join.

Probably, we could mention this possibility to the developers with the information about the alpha phase, so that they can use it if they want. I took a note about that.

But should it be the default? I'm not sure. The idea of alpha is that it's not a beta yet, so it's still limited playtesting. The developer should probably choose themselves which level of openness they want for their group during alpha.

[Brainchild]

Not quite the same question but close enough I don't think it deserves a new thread: is there a way for non-studio players to help test a pre-alpha game?

[Een]

Well, no
Before alpha, the game is only on the studio, so only studio users have access. The idea is that when a game is advanced enough to need playtesting from non-developers, it should be moved to alpha.

[Brainchild]

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!

[Draasill]

Thank you for your answer