beta testers -- someone with experience from ibetatest.com?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Anders, May 30, 2009.

  1. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    #1 Anders, May 30, 2009
    Last edited: May 30, 2009
    We are probably going to do some external beta testing for our next game, and in the search of good beta testers I stumbled upon ibetatest.com. Is there anyone here with any experience from using the site, either as a beta tester or as a developer?

    Thanks in advance!

    (I think we are going to select 50% of the beta testers that already have a rating on the site, and 50% with no rating at all)
     
  2. yourofl10

    yourofl10 Well-Known Member

    Dec 11, 2008
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    I'm on ibetatest.com I think it's easy to use and very helpful. There;s alot of people on there.I think you should give it a shot.
     
  3. Marioman619

    Marioman619 Well-Known Member

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    I just joined there, seems very nice. It should make everything a lot easier.
     
  4. VeganTnT

    VeganTnT Moderator
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    I'm on there as well but I haven't got a request from there as of yet =/

    I was starting to think it was all beta testers and no devs
     
  5. nattylux

    nattylux Well-Known Member

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    Haven't tried iBetaTest, but we've actually had great experiences just recruiting beta testers directly from TouchArcade and Twitter. We've gotten great feedback, and since we all hang out in the same place, the people are trustworthy. For example, VeganTnT has now beta tested 2 of our games and gave some really helpful feedback - and I remember him blogging about Imangi about 10 months ago, so there's a history there :) Also, the TA people who beta test your game will generally go on to talk it up after the game comes out.

    What I usually like to do is post a thread previewing the game, and somewhere in the middle start recruiting people for the beta. That way, the people who respond are the ones that have been following your thread all along, and you know they're interested in the game. Not just people who jump on a thread with the word "beta" in it because they want a free game.

    I've also gotten a lot of interested people on Twitter, and that's another community that weeds itself out. If they're following my posts closely enough to see my call for beta testers, then they're genuinely interested and will probably give good feedback. And again - since they're on Twitter, they will advertise your game for you once it comes out, which is always great.
     
  6. dannys95

    dannys95 Well-Known Member

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    I think it would be better to go with ppl here on TA as natty said.
    Anders: I hope I'm trustworthy to beta test!!! :D ;)
     
  7. codepunk

    codepunk Well-Known Member

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    I have gotten a few good testers from ibetatest however you need to be very careful and I would not release to unknown people unless you have anti-cracking code in place. If you do not you stand the chance of the game being cracked then leaked to the pirates before even being released.
     
  8. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    I'm not sure, but don't you have to manually apply for beta testing? I don't think you can just sit back and wait. Not sure though.
     
  9. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    thanks for sharing your thoughts!

    ibetatest.com can be used as a tool, as in you can add beta testers yourself, from TA for instance. there seems to be a neat little bug repporting/feature suggestion system too.

    The problem is that if you let 100 people beta test your app, I reckon around half of them will actually be helpful in some way (i.e. report bugs, come with suggestions etc). The idea behind ibetatest.com is pretty novel, the beta testers get a rating so it's pretty easy to pick ones that are good.

    That said, I would love to have people from TA beta test.
     
  10. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    Sure! ;)
     
  11. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    Aha, good point!
     
  12. charlieiscool12

    May 22, 2009
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    ibetatest is great, although i havent used it from the dev point of view
     
  13. VeganTnT

    VeganTnT Moderator
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    I thought it was both =/ at least that's what I was told.

    So devs could hand pick people that they would like to beta test for them.

    Looks like I need to be more active on there now
     
  14. Stykman

    Stykman Well-Known Member

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    i dont really like ibetatest as a tester myself you dont or barely have contact with anyone

    i hope im trustworthy enough to beta test
     
  15. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    If you go to http://ibetatest.com/iphone/controllers/betas/ you can see the apps that are looking for beta testers, then you just click "apply for testing" for the ones you are interested in beta testing, easy peasy lemon squeezy. The devs aren't going to hunt you down, you have to apply for the ones that interest you.
     
  16. Spartan12103

    Spartan12103 Well-Known Member

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    Hmm I've beta tested but never there.
     
  17. VeganTnT

    VeganTnT Moderator
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    I've done that before but I never got a notice that I was accepted or declined. I tried it again and I got an email saying that my application was submitted (never got that before)

    Maybe the site was just having issues when I applied the first time?
     
  18. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

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    Aha, I dunno. That doesn't sound too good. Perhaps the spam filter caught it, or it simply doesn't work, or perhaps the dev never actually accepted/declined.
     
  19. VeganTnT

    VeganTnT Moderator
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    I checked back and the beta I applied to says it has no more open slots. But the application I sent hasn't been approved.

    So I think that a dev says they have X spots. The X amount of spots are shown and every application fills a spot until it's declined. If there is 1 slot left and 2 people apply then one goes through and the other (usually me :() ends up in limbo. Cause it says I applied, which I did, but the dev won't ever see it. Or maybe they saw it but they already had their slots filled

    If you end up using it please please let us know how it works on the devs side. I'd love to know how it works

    Cheers!
     
  20. Clymos

    Clymos Well-Known Member

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    #20 Clymos, May 31, 2009
    Last edited: May 31, 2009
    I saw that site and even made an account I believe but I never use it. I find that betas are often more promising here (from a testers side of course) but really TA members are often pretty good beta testers as we can help hype up a game here before and after it's relase. Plus there is a very large community here. I don't know exactly how the site works but it is true there is no real way to tell how good beta testers are on here. Unless of course you contact others devs they beta tested for. If you end up getting testers from here I hope I am considered :)
     

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