Scumble373
FarSight Employee
- Jul 1, 2014
- 252
- 0
Hey Everyone!
Recently, I have been working on a better way to conduct beta tests for android users. Posting a link to our .apk file to the general public and having all discussions posted in a thread just didn't seem like the best way to go about it.
It turns out that Google play has a really great way to conduct beta tests, that is done all through a Google+ communities page. After playing around with it for a while, I really think this is the best way to conduct beta tests going forward. Here's basically how it will work:
1. You express interest in being one of our android beta testers.
2. You get invited to a private google+ community dedicated to beta testing the Pinball Arcade on android.
3. There will be a link in the community you click on where you can "opt in" to be a tester.
4. Upon opting in, you will be prompted to update your current version of The Pinball Arcade. This will be the beta version.
5. When finding a bug, or having a comment or complaint, you can go to the community page and post text, photos, videos, links or whatever else to help show the bug you found.
6. Once the table is released, you should see an update in Google play, and you can download the final version.
7. If you ever want to "opt out" of being a tester, it is very easy to do so. Just click the same link you did to opt in, and choose the "leave the test" option
There are three reasons for changing the way we beta test:
- We want our beta tests to be private. We want the people who are beta testing to be helpful, and we want to be able to remove anyone who is disrupting our testers.
- We want to allow our testers to have the full version. As you saw from the Dracula beta test, in app purchasing was disabled. I didn't feel comfortable giving out the full version to the general public. However, with a closed group of trusted testers, we will be able to open up the purchasing option once again.
- We want to improve the table as much as possible. By doing the beta testing through the Google play store, we get access to all crash logs and ANR's statistics.
SO... that leads me to the point of this post: Do you want to be an android tester? I'm compiling a list of android testers to add to the google+ community. All you need to have is a gmail account. If you don't feel comfortable posting your email address below, feel free to send me a private message with the address included.
I'll be accepting anybody for the first run of beta testing, and afterwards be able to see who is contributing, who is not contributing and who is being disruptive, and eventually get the community to where it should be. Please remember, this is the first time we're using this as a beta testing method, there may be some confusion and some questions, but I believe this is the best way to go about beta testing in the future.
Thank you all
Recently, I have been working on a better way to conduct beta tests for android users. Posting a link to our .apk file to the general public and having all discussions posted in a thread just didn't seem like the best way to go about it.
It turns out that Google play has a really great way to conduct beta tests, that is done all through a Google+ communities page. After playing around with it for a while, I really think this is the best way to conduct beta tests going forward. Here's basically how it will work:
1. You express interest in being one of our android beta testers.
2. You get invited to a private google+ community dedicated to beta testing the Pinball Arcade on android.
3. There will be a link in the community you click on where you can "opt in" to be a tester.
4. Upon opting in, you will be prompted to update your current version of The Pinball Arcade. This will be the beta version.
5. When finding a bug, or having a comment or complaint, you can go to the community page and post text, photos, videos, links or whatever else to help show the bug you found.
6. Once the table is released, you should see an update in Google play, and you can download the final version.
7. If you ever want to "opt out" of being a tester, it is very easy to do so. Just click the same link you did to opt in, and choose the "leave the test" option
There are three reasons for changing the way we beta test:
- We want our beta tests to be private. We want the people who are beta testing to be helpful, and we want to be able to remove anyone who is disrupting our testers.
- We want to allow our testers to have the full version. As you saw from the Dracula beta test, in app purchasing was disabled. I didn't feel comfortable giving out the full version to the general public. However, with a closed group of trusted testers, we will be able to open up the purchasing option once again.
- We want to improve the table as much as possible. By doing the beta testing through the Google play store, we get access to all crash logs and ANR's statistics.
SO... that leads me to the point of this post: Do you want to be an android tester? I'm compiling a list of android testers to add to the google+ community. All you need to have is a gmail account. If you don't feel comfortable posting your email address below, feel free to send me a private message with the address included.
I'll be accepting anybody for the first run of beta testing, and afterwards be able to see who is contributing, who is not contributing and who is being disruptive, and eventually get the community to where it should be. Please remember, this is the first time we're using this as a beta testing method, there may be some confusion and some questions, but I believe this is the best way to go about beta testing in the future.
Thank you all
