Adding Playtesters

Playtesters help to ensure island quality before publishing by working out the bugs and issues on your project through playtesting. This kind of quality control is part of a project release schedule and good practice for serious island creators.

Playtesters are people you invite to playtest your islands. They should be people you trust, and who will provide feedback on the quality of the experience and log any issues they encounter during gameplay.

Ideally, a playtester would look for possible issues with game mechanics, art, messaging, and clarity of goals in the game.

Playtesters do not have a hand in creating the island.

Create a Playtest

To turn the Private Version of your island into a playtestable project, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Projects page and select Playtests from the tab menu.

2. Click Create Playtest and a Private Version panel opens.

   

3. Select the Private Version from the panel and click Create Playtest.

   

This creates a special code playtesters can use to access the island. The Private Version code is also visible from the private code message. Click Manage Playtest Group to add playtesters to the project.

Clicking the Manage Team button on the playtest island code takes you to the Manage Teams page where you can add playtesters to your project.

Adding Playtesters to a Project

Add playtesters to work in tandem with the project team. Follow the instructions below to invite playtesters to your team:

1. Click Manage Team from the main menu.

2. Click Playtest Group tab

3. Click Add New Playtesters from the tabbed options.

   

4. Click Copy URL to Clipboard to copy the invite URL.

   

5. Paste the URL into an email.

6. Send the email to invite to people you trust to playtest your project.

The number of playtesters you can have is limited to 50. You’ll need to remove previous playtesters from the team if you want to add new playtesters.

When invitees accept the invitation, they are listed under the Playtest Group tab. Go into the Playtest Group tab to add playtesters to specific projects.

Accepting a Playtest Invitation

All playtesters receive an email invitation to join a team.

As a playtester, when you receive an invitation, click the link in the email to open the Epic Games Sign In page. If you don’t have an Epic Games account, you’ll be prompted to create one.

1. Sign in to your Epic Games account.

   

2. Click the Join Playtest group button. You’ll see a Joined Successfully message when you’ve joined the team.

   

3. You must be an adult to accept a Playtest Invitation. If you haven’t done so already, you will need to complete the age verification process. Epic Games has partnered with SuperAwesome to confirm that you are an adult. The verification methods available to you will vary depending on where you live. See Parent Verifications FAQs from SuperAwesome for more information.

4. Click Home to go to the Creator Portal home page.

   

If the team you’ve been invited to join is at capacity for playtesters, you’ll receive a message:

Contact the person who invited you to join the team.

Removing Playtesters

You can remove playtesters from a project once their testing is complete, or if you no longer need the person to playtest.

Go to the Playtesters tab under Manage Team to remove playtesters.

1. Click the ellipsis menu next to the playtester’s name. The option to remove the playtester opens in a popup.

   

2. Click Remove Playtester > Confirm. The person is removed from the Playtesters page.

   

You can add a new person after removing a playtester by clicking the Add New Playtester button.

Switch Playtest Version

To playtest an iterated version of your island, update the playtest version and create a new playtest code.

1. Open the project from the Playtest tab.

2. Click Update Playtest.

   

3. Select the project version from the slideout panel and click Create Playtest.

   

The island’s playtest code updates to a new code and shows the Private Version code for the newly selected version.