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Where to publish Beta Games

S

shoecake

Lurker
Hi,

I'm new to Android Dev and just finishing off some puzzle/board games (betas available here). I'm almost done, but I don't know many Android users so I'm a little worried about compatibility on some devices. I'm reluctant to use the Android Market as a live testbed, so I'm keen to post my games to a dedicated download site that specializes in betas or, where users that are willing to try games out and give feedback (thumbs up/down is enough!)

Alternatively, a smaller app store that is not as formal/large as Market might be good, so I don't hit too many support issues in one go!

Also, if anyone likes the look of the games on the link above, feel free to contact me with feedback.
 
You can either do a public beta here in this forum, or go to xda-developer, both will work just fine. At xda-developer you will get more in depth feedback from developers and here you get more consumer feedback.
Since you already have a page for it in place, I would rename the link so it shows that you can get the betas there and then I would also post it over at xda.
 
Ahh thanks. I had heard of Xda from back when I was doing original PocketPC games, but didn't realize there was an association with Android also. I'll check it out thanks!
 
Posting links to the apks here will give you feedback from end users letting you know if the app works on a variety of devices. Some carriers block non-market applications so you will need to publish on the market for feedback on all phones.
 
Releasing on a forum with apk is one way to go.

An alternative that I'm considering for future games, is that you can always release the game on the market as a clearly labelled beta. Yes - you will still get some people who just don't read the description, but you should also get lots of people legitimately interested in trying your game that you just won't reach on a forum.

Make sure to let the game package be *.beta (you should have built/build your code to make this easy - especially if you plan free/paid versions), though, so that you can later add the "real" version of the game to the market and decommission the beta version without carrying over the ratings and comments from the beta.
 
Thanks for the tips. I think my games are polished enough to go onto Market but I feel like its impossible for me to test for every possible situation and I didn't want to face too much negative feedback on the first release, as I fix some unexpected issues, and optimize for certain devices.

I like the decommissioning idea. Thanks!
 
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