Publishing / Testflight Question

Discussion in 'Buildbox General Discussion' started by ThomasC, Mar 23, 2018.

  1. ThomasC

    ThomasC Boxer

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    Hey guys quick publishing question here,

    When sending off beta test flights to publishers is it better to send a version of the game where all coin shop and levels unlock automatically (so that the publisher/tester can quickly experience all aspects of the game) OR should you send the finalized ready to be shipped to the App Store version where they have to obtain coins and beat levels like normal to advance through the game.

    Thanks, any advice or knowledge on this subject is appreciated,

    Thomas
     
  2. Benfont

    Benfont Avid Boxer

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    Hey Thomas, I guess it all depends on the type of game economy you have.

    But what I have done in the past to test the game with my friends and also publishes, is that I give the player an action that is obtained automatically as soon as the gameplay starts (just place it on top of the character)
    That action has a lot of coins (like 10.000 coins or so) and with that amount of coins then the player can get any item they want.
    In that way every single part of the game can be tested, like the shop or character unlocks, etc.
    If you do this method, you can explain it to a publisher and I am sure they will understand what you mean. So far I have had no problems with this approach.
    Finally you need to be sure to remove that action before publishing your game otherwise you are not going to make much money with the IAP :)

    Of course, there are other ways to deal with your issue but this method is just the one I have used and has worked fine for me so far.

    I would like also to hear some other ideas from other boxers to see how they test their game economy, maybe they have an interesting approach I haven't considered yet..

    Cheers,
     
  3. ThomasC

    ThomasC Boxer

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    Yes. Thank you @Benfont that's a great idea- Also, I was thinking an "unlock all" button in the coin shop could achieve the same goal- and then of course remove that button before publishing. I guess in general I'm wondering if publishers care about this sort of thing and if there's an industry standard way of presenting aspects like coin shops and even level unlocks, etc...?
     
  4. Rusted

    Rusted Avid Boxer

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    I believe in TestFlight mode you can let the players “buy” through the shop and I would suggest this...they won’t have to actually pay...and like stated above if it is part of your economic strategy I would test flight with the shop included
     
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  5. Christoph

    Christoph Miniboss Boxer

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    Generally speaking, when you first approach a publisher, they will not look at any meta game elements at all. It's not important for them. They purely want to see/feel the game(play). If they like what they see/experience then they will get in contact with you and everything else will be discussed further on. The publisher normally has a lot of experience with monetizing so they will probably suggest a lot of things and change everything again anyway. So don't even bother much with all this. For example for Voodoo, you want to send in a simple gameplay video and the game - even for testing - shall not have anything else than the gameplay itself. I think for Ketchapp it's pretty much the same (correct me if I'm wrong).
     
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