Another great way of gathering feedback and testing the game extensively is to release it into the wild, in a limited manner.
Public testing most often takes the form of alpha and beta tests, which correspond to their milestones and can either be open (available to everyone) or closed (with access granted to a portion of registered candidates).
To make the best use of public tests, you’ll need to open and gather feedback from multiple feedback channels such as:
- Game forums, fan pages and community sites such as Reddit.
- Questionnaires - either e-mailed via newsletters or linked to from in-game.
- Analytics - user retention, equipment usage, win/loss rates, drop off points, and more!
- Built-in rating systems - completed a mission/quest/storyline/challenge? ...
