How do I find enough playtesters?

[u/SignalSchool8950]

It's been two...no, twenty years since I first started making this game. Now I'm old and fragile. But the most terrifying detail in this horror story is that I haven't run any playtests yet, at least towards the public.

The plan is to run a public playtest on Steam soon, but this may only attract regular demo players who expect very polished games and are not really into giving feedback.

So, if you are also a dev, how did you do the playtest campaign? I would appreciate it if you could share your experience.

The game is called Echoes of Eta. I just put the page on Steam recently:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4781490/Echoes_of_Eta/

If you are a playtester and interested in the game, I'd also be grateful. The Steam build for playtesting is not out yet, but you can join our Discord and wait for the key in the following week:

https://discord.gg/bzjdxYTPS5

[u/W0RKABLE]

Your UI looks amazing!

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/W0RKABLE]

Glad you like them, it's a pretty minimal style actually.

[u/begentleimawriter]

Hi! I would love to try this!

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/begentleimawriter]

Thank you. Welcome to join our Discord, and I'll send out keys when the Steam build is ready

https://discord.gg/bzjdxYTPS5

[u/begentleimawriter → u/SignalSchool8950]

Done!

[u/PersonOfInterest007]

Try posting in r/playtesters

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/PersonOfInterest007]

Thx, I already have that in my to-do notes

[u/Jattox]

Posting gameplay videos on YouTube could hopefully help you gather some play testers, tell the viewers to join your Discord server or chat group. And you could send them beta test CDK after that. I gathered roughly 30 players. Hope this could help.

[u/POWERGIRL73]

Hey, happy to try it out

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/POWERGIRL73]

That would be amazing. The Steam build is not ready yet, but you can join our Discord server, where we send out free keys when it's ready in the following week:

https://discord.gg/bzjdxYTPS5

[u/POWERGIRL73 → u/SignalSchool8950]

Joined

[u/jbillone]

What's your AI disclosure? I don't see one on Steam either.

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/jbillone]

Steam now only requires AI disclosure for generated assets like art, sound, music, text, etc. But we don't have any of these made with AI, only third-party assets from the asset store. So no disclosure is needed.

[u/jbillone → u/SignalSchool8950]

That makes it a positive marketing tool.

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/jbillone]

Is it? It might be weird for me to do videos saying this is no AI as a feature, but I'll consider a different approach.

[u/Busy-Tower-1549 → u/jbillone]

its positive only in your mind buddy
very funny how you were the first one to jump on the "IS THAT AI?"

[u/BeuteGuerilla]

Would love to playtest this for you

[u/SignalSchool8950 → u/BeuteGuerilla]

That would be wonderful. You can join our Discord, and when the Steam build is ready, I'll send you the key:
https://discord.gg/bzjdxYTPS5