Where do you all find beta testers?

[Red Marble Games]

I've got two new games that I've just ported and that look ready to me (ports of HipSoft's Ocean Express (http://www.hipsoft.com/oe.html) and Positech's Democracy (http://www.democracygame.com)), but I'm a lousy tester and would like some folks to really give the games a hard look. Not just the sort of thing I see posted here from time to time -- hey, can you see if the game runs on your Mac -- but, you know, real beta testing. I've had the darnedest time finding people who will really look closely. I'm happy to offer a free copy of the final game to testers.

Anyway, I assume others here must have the same needs, but a search of the forums doesn't turn up many references. Any suggestions on where I might find a handful of good testers?

Thanks!

[imikedaman]

I've had the darnedest time finding people who will really look closely. I'm happy to offer a free copy of the final game to testers.
Have you ever considered offering something of actual value? I see so many developers who want top-notch beta testers, but none of them are willing to offer anything more than a free copy of the game.

Beta testing takes weeks to perform correctly, and a single copy of a game isn't much motivation.

[JustinFic]

Have you ever considered offering something of actual value?

I've never heard of monetary compensation for beta testing. IMO a free copy of the game is plenty, not to mention beta testing experience is a foot in the door of a QA job if you want into the game industry.

To answer the original question: forums seem to be the best places. Here, GameDev, and IndieGamer would be good starting points. Your best testers though are existing customers. These are people who've bought your games already, so you especially want their feedback. Alternatively, if your site is getting a lot of traffic you can try posting a call for testers right on your site, or via newsletter.

[imikedaman]

Finding a good beta tester willing to work weeks for "free" is like finding a good developer who works for weeks/months and releases everything as freeware - it's a cute idea, but it rarely happens in real life.

There are always people willing to beta test things, but like Red Marble Games said, they never really test it to the extent it requires. I'm simply explaining why.

[imikedaman]

If you want a cheap, effective way to get beta testers, offer a moderate sum of money for each bug found, like $5 or something. That way they actually have a reason to work harder to find bugs, since the harder they try, the more bugs they will uncover, and the more money they'll make. The problem with offering a flat rate (like a copy of a game), is that they could find ten bugs and get the flat rate, or they could find one bug and get the same flat rate. Why do extra work in that situation?

Unless you're unconfident about how many bugs are in the games, it would be relatively cheap for you and you'll get great results.

[Zwilnik]

If you want a cheap, effective way to get beta testers, offer a moderate sum of money for each bug found, like $5 or something. That way they actually have a reason to work harder to find bugs, since the harder they try, the more bugs they will uncover, and the more money they'll make. The problem with offering a flat rate (like a copy of a game), is that they could find ten bugs and get the flat rate, or they could find one bug and get the same flat rate. Why do extra work in that situation?

Unless you're unconfident about how many bugs are in the games, it would be relatively cheap for you and you'll get great results.

Very bad idea. you'll be swamped with minor, pointless bug reports by testers aiming for bounty rather than aiming to help make the game great. It's the same as "If you don't find 100 bugs this week, we'll fire you", you end up with 100 bugs, mostly time wasters for the developer.

Good testers will work for no pay. Often the best incentive is the opportunity to help create a great game and appear on the credits. Sometimes testers want to get experience working with a team as part of an effort to get into the industry.

Good management of your beta testers can sometimes make a bigger difference than just getting more expensive testers though.

[imikedaman]

You'll be swamped with minor, pointless bug reports by testers aiming for bounty rather than aiming to help make the game great.
Which is why you enact a rule that the bug needs to be important enough to merit fixing. Which do you think is better: getting a ton of bug reports, or getting no bug reports?

[JustinFic]

Also, if you're looking for game players as opposed to developers to test your game, you can try InsideMacGames. You can make a post on the forum there or send them a press release about reaching beta status and the need for testers. It's also a good place to build up some word-of-mouth buzz, and optionally sell your game through MacGameStore.

[Zwilnik]

Which is why you enact a rule that the bug needs to be important enough to merit fixing. Which do you think is better: getting a ton of bug reports, or getting no bug reports?

The number of bug reports isn't important, it's the data you get on the bugs that's important. A hundred worthless bug reports that waste the dev team's time is just as bad as no bug reports (that ends up with the game coming out with bugs in it).

It's more important that the tester wants to be testing and is good at it (not necessarily an expert tester, some people are just naturally good testers). A good part of testing is communication with the dev team with pertinent info, rather than just bombarding them with bugs.

If you're in a commercial situation, with the testers on the staff, then their wages and future employment are critically based on the overall quality of the testing in a project, not bugs found.

In a shareware situation, it's very unusual for testers to be paid, so you make sure they're nicely mentioned in the credits, get free copies of the game and if they're good, make sure they want to help with your next game ;)

In theory, the better your games are, the more people will want to beta test the next one.

[igame3d]

I look under rocks, then I grab the beta testers when I find them by the neck so they don't bite, then I put them in a fish tank and feed them crickets.

Oh wait, thats snakes, the beta testers always get away before reporting.

[imikedaman]

Zwilnik, thank you for your clear and direct explanation of it all. The only real basis for my argument was that despite the standard payment for beta testers being a common practice, I was getting tired of seeing so many developers complain that they can't find good help anywhere.

The problem I most come across is that most of the time people just want a prerelease copy of your program, so they enter the beta testing program, get what they want, and leave after maybe suggesting one or two minor bugs that aren't really bugs, then expect to get mentioned in the credits for their help too.

Who knows, I might just be too cynical nowadays. :wacko:

[Zwilnik]

The problem I most come across is that most of the time people just want a prerelease copy of your program, so they enter the beta testing program, get what they want, and leave after maybe suggesting one or two minor bugs that aren't really bugs, then expect to get mentioned in the credits for their help too.

Who knows, I might just be too cynical nowadays. :wacko:

nope, unfortunately it's all too common. Especially if the previous game you did was popular.

Generally though, you'll probably get feedback from potential beta testers from people playing the previous game and you can tell from that which ones are serious enough to be worth signing up.