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Creating a beta or press build using ActiveMARK is quick and easy. Below is a guide to assist you during the process. If you have any questions, contact your account representative.
This is an outline of the process, if you need more details on any step please contact your account representative or read through ActiveMARK's Advanced Technical Documentation.
If you will be digitally distributing your game and you have never created a game for digital distribution, read through the most common pitfalls for first time developers and Digital Distribution Guide for Developers.
While these are not requirements for your beta and press, it is good to keep these in mind. Additionally, not all of the digital distribution requirements are enforced for larger core games as they are with the smaller casual game.
If you are creating a large budget title that will also be distributed in retail, please get in touch with us early in development to ensure your game is ready for digital distribution and you have all the most secure DRM settings enabled.
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- Packaging your game will include integrating the DRM, creating an installer, and uploading it for distribution to your beta/press users.
- We suggest using a calendar date based expiration on all external beta and press builds.
- A step by step packaging guide is available here:
ActiveMARK Packaging Toolkit Users Guide
- Each user can be given their own activation key if desired – this way you will be able to track any leaks from the press or beta users.
- You may send out the link to your game that is hosted on the Trymedia servers. Distribution and hosting is free for all our prospective and current clients.
- We suggest you use a third party solution such as Survey Monkey to collect feedback from your users. Basic usage is free, more advanced usage is only $20/month.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
- Many developers call home to their servers with gameplay data to help them tune their games.
- Offering a free copy of the game when it launches in exchange for submitting feedback will increase the rate of users submitting feedback.
- You can easily create multiple versions of your game to test multiple tuning and gameplay scenarios.
- Using the information from your user surveys and sampled data, create a new version of your game.
- Use the proactive patch management system in ActiveMARK to automatically update those who already have the preview build.
- ActiveMARK automatically creates a patch differential from the original and updated content.
- The client application automatically prompts the user to install the update when they exit the game.
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