We've worked hard to make sure that game builds uploaded to PlaytestCloud "just work," and for the most part, you are on the safe side assuming that every Android or iOS app you drop into PlaytestCloud's upload form works on the player's devices just as expected.
However, there are some caveats that we want to tell you about. If you are not sure whether your game uses any of the platform features below, don't worry. Just upload your game, and we will get back to you if something did not work as expected.
As part of our 100% satisfaction guarantee, we won't charge you for playtests that didn't deliver valuable results for you.
Android: APK Files
These are supported and are the most common Android files that are uploaded on PlaytestCloud.
Android: Build signature check
If your game checks whether it has been manipulated by requesting its package signature from the Android Package Manager, this should not be a problem. We implemented a mechanism to spoof this signature and make your game believe it has not been modified, even though it was modified to add our screen recording software.
Android: AAB Files
AAB files can be run on PlaytestCloud. However, we only support an extracted universal version of the AAB file. If you do not have a universal APK version in your Android App Bundle, we would ask that your development team re-export your build as an APK. In order to ensure an optimal playtest environment. You will be able to see the red touch indicators using an AAB build.
Android: Screen Recordings
Android apps that incorporate screen recordings into the game currently do not work with PlaytestCloud. These apps interfere with our screen recording wrapper and cause a failure with the PlaytestCloud system. Therefore we do not support apps that record the screen at this time.
Android: Instant Apps
Android Instant Apps don't work yet with PlaytestCloud. We are interested in supporting these, but there is no definite product roadmap for this.
Android: Geoblocking
Some soft-launch builds employ geoblocking to ensure they can only be played in certain regions. By default, we'll distribute your build to players in the USA, Canada, and the UK, so your game needs to work in all of these countries.
Otherwise, it's not possible for us to run the test. Your game needs to be playable in all the countries you are targeting in the order form. For this, it does not matter whether the geoblocking is implemented by IP range or via GPS location.
Android: Voice communication or microphone use (limited support)
If your game utilizes the microphone during gameplay, for example to offer voice communications between players or as part of the gameplay, these features will not function during the playtest.
PlaytestCloud requires access to the microphone itself to record the players spoken feedback as they play (the think-aloud recording), which will prevent your game from gaining access to the microphone.
If you're planning to test the microphone enabled features we can run your playtest in a custom mode without our think-aloud recording, thereby restoring access to the microphone to your game. In this mode you will still be able to watch the player's gameplay and players will answer your survey questions after the gameplay, but no audio is being recorded.
Android: Hack/Cheat protection
If your game build has some form of hack protection, cheat protection or build integrity check, for instance, to make sure that players do not use a modified client to cheat in an online game, this might cause problems.
As the PlaytestCloud wrapper manipulates the game's binary, your chat/hack protection might be triggered. Unfortunately, this can lead to problems down the road in the game test, e.g., if your game does not tell players right away that they aren't allowed to play like this but if they get blacklisted/banned from the online servers because of playing with a hacked client.
Android: Facebook login
If your testing scenario requires people to sign in on Facebook or connect their in-game account to Facebook, this usually works without issue.
A typical use case for this is to transfer the game progress that players had in the released version of a game into an experimental build being tested through PlaytestCloud. However, as there are some situations and setups which can cause problems, it's usually best to reach out to us before ordering a playtest requiring this.
We will work with you and make sure that everything works as expected and you get the most out of your playtest.
Android: Smartlook integration
If you are using Smartlook or a similar qualitative analytics program with your game, this can interfere with screen recording and cause frame delays when it interacts with our recording software. We recommend you turn off these type of programs when you test your game on PlaytestCloud.