# BetaHub Guide for Game Developers ## Why and for what? If you're developing a game, you likely have an expanding community growing around it. The community is the driving force behind what you do, but it also brings a great deal of responsibility. You undoubtedly want to collaborate with your community, gather feedback from them, and make them feel valued and heard. However, the larger the community, the more challenging it becomes to manage all of this, as it requires a significant investment of your valuable time. BetaHub interjects into this process, acting not only as a tool but also as an intelligent entity mediating between you and your community. It is specifically designed for situations like yours, providing you with a smart tool to collect feedback from your players. ## Getting Started Getting started with BetaHub is straightforward and only requires the most basic actions. ### Setting up a Project Log into BetaHub via https://app.betahub.io/. You can create a traditional account or log in with your existing Discord or GitHub account. Click on **Home** in the left navigation panel, and then on the **New Project** button. This will take you to the project creation form where you'll enter: ![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/H1jO7tawn.png) - **Name** - The name of your game, visible to everyone - **Access** - Determines whether the game is visible to everyone (anyone can join the project), or only to those invited. Private projects do not appear on the public list of projects. - **Description** - A description of your game. This text is visible in the largest field on your project page. You can use Markdown formatting to enrich it with graphics, links, lists, or tables. It should contain useful information for your community. Think of it like a welcome message sent on Discord immediately after a new member joins your community. - **Icon** - The icon of your project. It will be displayed above the description and on the project card in the view of all projects. It will also be used as the icon for invitations sent to members of your community. - **Platforms** - Choose the platforms on which your game is available. Only select those platforms for which you want to provide download links for your game. - **Bug Description Validation Level** - Here, you can decide how much BetaHub should intervene in the correctness of the reports made by your community. By default, AI decides whether the report is correct. You also have the choice of no validation, or simple validation based on the length of the report. :::info You can freely change each of these items later. Don't worry if you don't have full information at the moment or if you don't want to spend too much time on it. ::: If everything looks fine, click the **Create Project** button. Your new project has just been created! ### Creating a New Release Before anyone can report a bug in your game, you need to "release" the first version of your game. This is necessary because every bug must be associated with a version. To create a new version, go to your project page and then click on the **New Release** button. ![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SJBKQFaDn.png) The new release form will ask you for the following details: - **Label** - The label of your release. - **Description** - The description of your release. You can use Markdown formatting in this field. - **Images** - You can attach images to your release. They will be displayed in a gallery format. They will also be included in the email and posted on your Discord channel, if integrated. - **Discord Bot: Send Images Separately** - If you have Discord integration enabled, this option determines whether images should be posted in one message or in several. The difference lies in how Discord displays images. Images posted in one message display as square thumbnails in a gallery, while images posted separately maintain their sizes and are not cropped. :::warning Your release will be published on the project page, but also by email and through the Discord Bot on your channel if you have Discord integration enabled. ::: :::info You can edit the content of your release at any time after its creation. The Discord integration will also edit the content of the message published on Discord. ::: ### Inviting a Discord Bot If you have a community on your Discord server, you'll probably want to integrate our bot. The bot allows Discord users to report bugs without having to log in anywhere, manages communication with users, and also publishes release notes for your project. Its capabilities have been succinctly described in one of our posts: https://www.betahub.io/blog/general/2023/06/05/discord-bot.html To invite the bot to your channel: 1. Go to your project page 2. From the left navigation panel, select the **Discord Bot** option. 3. Follow the instructions on this page. ### Inviting Users It's time to invite users to your project. #### Private Projects If you've set your project to **Private**, the only way to join the project is by generating an invitation link. To do this: 1. Go to your project page 2. In the **Members** panel, click on the **Invite** button. 3. On the invitation link creation form, decide how long the link should be valid. 4. Copy to clipboard and share the invitation link with the person or group of people you want to invite. :::info A person who clicks on this link will see the name and icon of your project, as well as the question of whether they want to join. They will need to create an account on BetaHub. ::: :::info The list of people who have joined your project is visible in the **Members** panel on your project page. ::: #### Public Projects If you've set your project to **Public**, you can invite users in exactly the same way as for **Private** projects, but additionally, users can join your project on their own. All they need to do is try to access your project page and try to download the game, or report a bug. If a user reports a bug via the Discord bot, the bot gives them the option to edit or add media to the report, but again this requires logging in and joining. :::info Logging in for a community originating from Discord is as simple as possible. All you need to do is choose to log in with your Discord account during login. All bugs previously reported by the bot will automatically be assigned to this user. ::: ## Working with the Community ### Bugs Reported by Users You will be notified of each bug reported by users depending on your settings. You will always see a notification on the site. Additionally, you may receive a notification via the Discord bot and by email. Depending on your AI submission verification level settings, you may but do not have to verify submission content. When you have AI checking enabled, artificial intelligence will: - Make sure the submission is detailed enough - It is only about one bug - Does not have duplicates already existing in the system You, as a developer for each submission, can: - Delete the submission - Change its status - Start a discussion in the comments section - Ask for more information #### Player, I Need More Information! BetaHub assumes that asking for more information is one of the most frequent reasons for communication between the developer and the tester. So frequent that it is one of BetaHub's features to take over part of the responsibility for communication. ![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rJpFQK6Dn.png) Things like steps to reproduce, screenshots, video clips, and log files have a subtle button called **Ask for [Something]**. Clicking will cause BetaHub to contact the reporter (most often the Discord bot if integrated) and ask for additions to the report. ## Need Help? [Join our Discord channel](https://discord.gg/g2wpRtG) and send a message, we're happy to help!