Player interviews & live playtests through PlaytestCloud are conducted through our in-house video call system. It is fairly similar to most video calling services out there with a few added features. The players experience will be slightly different to your own experience as an interviewer. Therefore, we created this article to help you understand the players perspective and allow you to quickly troubleshoot any issues they might encounter during the interview allowing you to spend more time on the important questions.

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Player interviews & live playtests through PlaytestCloud are conducted through our in-house video call system. It is fairly similar to most video calling services out there with a few added features.

Once you place an order for the playest suitable players will receive email invitiations asking them to sign up to slots. After the player has signed up to a slot they will receive a confirmation email with details of the playtest.

Players will receive a reminder email 10 minutes before the interview/live playtest start time with the invite link that will allow them to join the Interview or Live Playtest.

​Important: All players including your own players, accept an NDA before joining the interview. Any information shared during the interview is confidential.

After accepting the NDA players will be onboarded to the playtest. For interview playtests, the player will not be asked to install any game before the interview. In live playtests, they will also be asked to download the game at this stage.

Once players have completed the onboarding they will see the screen below with a yellow Join Interview button.

Players will enter a video call lobby upon joining the interview. They will wait here until admitted by an interviewer. If the player leaves and rejoins the interview, they will join the lobby again and will need to be readmitted to the interview - they will not automatically rejoin the interview.

After being admitted to the interview/live playtest, players will see the following options from left to right in the action bar at the bottom of the screen:

Which camera feed is in the center for the player?

In the center of the players screen they will always see the interviewers camera feed. If you (the interviewer) are sharing your screen, they will see what you're sharing in the center instead.

Which camera feeds are on the top right for the player?

The player will see their own camera feed in the top right.

For interview playtests, the player will not be asked to install any game before the interview. In live playtests, they will be asked to download the game you shared before joining.

If you want to watch the player play the game ask the player to start screen sharing by clicking the screen share button next to the red End button at the bottom of their screen. You can also ask the player to share their device audio along with their screen.
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Once the player clicks the screen share button they will be shown the following screen:

To begin screen sharing players need to click the Start Broadcast button. Once the player clicks this button a three second countdown will begin on the players screen and the Screen Broadcast icon a will change from white to red. At the end of this countdown you will be able to see the players screen.

After the player begins screen sharing, they should tap on any open space on the screen to open the screen sharing options menu. From there, they can access the interview UI, share their device audio, and switch to the game (if it's a live playtest).

For live playtests, once players are on the screen sharing options menu, they simply need to click the Switch to game button.

This will automatically redirect them to your game/prototype, where they can then begin playing.

While playing, the game/prototype will occupy the entire screen, so the player won't see the interviewer's camera or the interview UI. The interviewer, however, will be able to see the player's camera feed (if enabled) and also the screen shared video of the game/prototype.

To go back to the PlaytestCloud App after playing the game or prototype, players will need to switch applications. Usually, this can be done by swiping up from the bottom of the screen on Android and iPhone to view all open apps. However, the method might vary depending on the player's phone settings.