Alpha tests
Alpha tests are typically the first round of tests you’ll do for your game. You’ll run these early on in the development phase, and they can help you identify any underlying glitches, design choices, technical issues, and more.
Beta testing is when you get a group of players to test your game, typically when your game is close to launch day. All of your game’s major issues should be fixed. In this phase, testers should be looking for ways to break your game. They’ll likely do performance tests, stress tests, and even game compliance testing.
Depending on your game type, you’ll want to get as many testers as possible. They should be testing on different devices, and checking for any performance issues and even server failure.
Open beta testing is when you let anyone play and test the beta version of your game. It’s a great way to get quantitive feedback for your game, spot bugs, and test your matchmakers and server quality.
Open beta tests will also help you identify which locations are most popular for your game and at what times they have most traffic. This is important for you to know so you can better allocate your servers and test your auto scaling, to avoid any long queue wait times, or even downtime.
Closed beta testing is when you privately invite a group of people to play and test your game. They’ll work closely with the developers and give qualitative feedback at this stage.
You have a lot more control with closed betas. You choose who tests your games. Where they are and how many are testing. If you’re trying to figure out a specific problem, then closed betas can help you get the answer you need.
Alpha tests are typically the first round of tests you’ll do for your game. You’ll run these early on in the development phase, and they can help you identify any underlying glitches, design choices, technical issues, and more.
Soft launching is when you release your game to a specific market or a restricted audience, before your full launch.