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How do solo developers find 12+ testers for their apps? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/android@lemmy.world
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I've solo developed an Android game as a hobby, but the 12+ testers at the same time for 14+ days requirement is a nightmare.

If you developed an app, how did you get past this? My game is fully free, no ads, no in-app purchases, so paying for testers isn't an option either.

Maybe I'm just lacking friends (:

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[–] 19 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I think you'd find if you just reach out to a few communities here you'd find plenty of volunteers. You can look into marketing if you're struggling

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I do blame Google a little bit, as in you can't just give someone an app-store link, they join your test and can play.

    Having to invite each tester per email, or have them join a Google Group really hinders things. I did try making posts on Reddit to find testers, got 1000 views and barely anyone signed up :-/

    As for marketing, sure, I could always fall back to that. But it's a fully free game, I'm not expecting to make any money on it. It does have a "Support the developer" option, but those usually don't work well at all (no reward for it, fully optional donation).

    Hell, I made the game because I wanted to go on more walks myself, but then I spent the last months in front of the PC actually making the game instead of walking, so that backfired :D

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago*

    As for marketing, I met learn how to appeal to communities, improve your sales pitch. And considering it's a free game, that should be easy! Things like implying scarcity, or urging action through time limitations.

    c/gaming: Now Accepting Beta Testers (indie dev, limited spots fill quickly! See details below)

    If you're interested, sign up quickly! I'm only accepting a limited amount of beta testers for (elevator pitch of game, brief description of yourself and your history to appeal to emotion).

    If you want to have your voice heard in game development, be a part of the journey of [game], or just want access before anyone else, apply now!

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Discord is awful of course, but I would try some of the more populated game development discords. If you mention it's free and not monetized at all you're likely to get a few dozen bites out of curiosity if nothing else. I know a few that got their first hundred players that way.

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    • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, I'm only one guy, but I have a little background in testing & troubleshooting software and would be willing to be one of your testers.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 3 months ago

    That would be lovely <3

    I don't want to self-promote here, but you can find the game when you go to my profile. To be honest it's 90% done, I do have some ideas for more content and I probably should add a tutorial (it throws you right into the game right now), but the tester requirement has been a hard wall so far.

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    • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Check out the testers community app. It lets you form a pack with other developers. You test their apps, they test yours.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    I had a look at those apps / communities. They mostly try to sell a service to you. Like weirdly enough the app hides all reviews, but when you dig deeper the reviews that are there are "I paid for the service and got my app approved!"

    Really fishy.

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    • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    i developed my first app and ran into the same problem.

    then i went to fiver to hire someone to test. there were lots of offers to help with this exact problem.

    but then, when i wanted to lookup some information he needed i noticed, that my app was already approved and available in the play store.

    i had to ask the guy for a refund and he grumpily refunded ^^

    i definitely had the requirement notifications in the console. but those also suddenly disappeared.

    maybe because my dev account was already a few years old, although i never actually used it before.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 3 months ago

    Huh, interesting. They might have tightened up the requirements, there are way too many scams out there.

    This is where I'm at (after exhausting all options so far):

    It doesn't look too bad, but then you have to keep in mind only testers actually playing the game for 14+ days count, which is insane. Maybe I'll have to go to Fiver as you said :)

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    • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    No idea what the game is, but you mentioned walking in a comment. I'm interested, as I have a dog!

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago

    Check the posts in my profile. It's a walking game similar to Pokemon Go.

    You collect ingredients, brew potions and sell them. With the gold/reputation earned you can buy things (skins, pets, buffs).

    And you can decorate your neighborhood :)

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    • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Ez, networking and comunity!

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    [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Is there an apk available? I don't have play services installed but otherwise I'd give it a try.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago

    I guess it will become available as soon as it goes live on the app store. But I'm not distributing directly via apk (I do have my debugging apk, but it's not setup for end users).

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    • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Marketing.

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    [–] 0 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Can you not sign up a dozen gmail addresses and throw together a few android VMs with VPNs for an extra layer of obscurity and be 12 testers?

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    • [+] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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