When working on updates for my game, I’ve always been working in the public place. That wasn’t really smart , but I didn’t have a lot of players in it so it didn’t matter. But now I’m gaining players, so I want to do this more carefuly.
I’ve done research and found out that the best way is to have a test place, but how exactly should I go on doing this? I see two ways to do it:
just have everything from the main game in the test place by publishing it as a copy
only copy and paste the things that I need for the update
With both ways there’s disadvantages like that badges won’t work and the http-service will send out false data to my analytics. But which is the best way?
I would recommend only using the things you are using in your test place, this prevents outside variable like lag ruining the testing. a lot of FPS studios have range place that is used for the testing of weapons and stuff like that.
The first way you pointed out is the way to go, the second one is too confusing and can get messy especially when you’re performing a mass update. Your live (public) place is supposed to be 1:1 to the test place except for not being as updated as the test server.
If you want to retain badge functionality create your place within the same experience. If you have analytics then make sure to either disable analytics on the test place or create an independent identifier to show if the analytics come from testing or from the live place.