How To Launch The Perfect Indie Beta Test

Indie gaming is on the rise, with many industry legends recognizing its importance for the future of the industry. This genre of gaming offers a wide range of experiences, and early-access releases are among the most popular among gamers.

It’s always a great idea to gather feedback before fully launching a game, so developers should consider this option and ensure they take care throughout the beta period to make the process as seamless as possible.

Verify Game Stability And Performance

For the best results, developers must take care to ensure their game is stable and in a functioning state. Beta testing should follow an internal alpha phase or heavy in-house QA, with experts believing a game should be 90-95% complete before beta testing.

Evidently, this type of test should be more focused on polishing and feedback implementation rather than basic stability. If a game is too broken, it may even frustrate the players and completely backfire.

As mentioned earlier, alpha testing or playing the game within the studio is the best approach to avoid such a scenario. It’s also a good idea to set performance targets like crash-free percentages.

Leverage Proxy Server

A major part of the indie beta testing process is the proxy server. Top proxy providers today offer enormous global networks of millions of IP addresses across hundreds of countries, giving small studios the freedom to test connectivity and performance at a large scale.

Self-host game servers, proxy through 3rd party
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Proxies also help with data gathering and QA by allowing safe web scraping and analytics collection. For instance, proxies can help collect market data or track how a particular game looks on different regional storefronts.

It’s no secret that many indie teams run on a tight budget, so free online proxy services can be a lifesaver by helping these teams avoid massive investments in global testing infrastructure.

A service like WebShare provides 10 premium proxies per account (fully anonymous and maintained for high performance and security). Such services also bring rotating residential proxies to the table for broader testing needs.

This makes it so that even teams with limited budgets can ensure their beta test covers diverse locations and network scenarios without breaking the bank.

Quickly Address Feedback

It goes without saying, but listening to the community and testers is important. Equally important is implementing feedback regularly and quickly. 

Developers need to stay on top of the community’s wishes and have plans in place for regular patches or bug fixes. Elsewhere, teams must have their priorities set to address the biggest problems first.

Catching problems in the beta phase is always better than rushing out patches post-release, so this period is extremely important for all types of games. Moreover, incorporating player feedback can even lead to positive word of mouth, which can then bring in more players to the game.

Recruit Beta Testers

Despite obvious budget concerns, spending money on a skilled and diverse group of testers is extremely important.

In this context, diversity refers to people of different skill levels, playstyles, and system configurations. Sticking with such players can lead to teams discovering 40% more issues early on due to the unpredictability of such teams.

Using social media, indie forums, and other websites like Reddit is a good idea in this instance. Some developers have also shown that Steam pages can be used to gather interested players effectively.

Ideally, a team should consider 500-2000 testers. However, the results can be solid, even with a smaller number of testers.