Unreal plugin

Flock Playtest is an optional Unreal plugin that turns a Development build into a playtest build. While a playtest runs, every launch of the game becomes one session on the playtest’s Sessions page, and the playtest decides what that session collects.

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What a playtest collects

Every one of them is switched on the playtest’s page in Protokite, so changing what a playtest collects needs no new build — and the player is asked first, so a launch collects only what they allowed. See What the player is asked.

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Before you start

• The Flock SDK is set up and working in the project — API URL, API Key, Game Name and Game Version, with the Flock panel showing nothing to fix. See the Unreal SDK page.
• A playtest exists in Protokite. Creating one makes a Flock game version for it, named pt- followed by the test’s ID.
• Playtest builds are Development builds. A Shipping build compiles logging out, so the Flock SDK cannot report error lines or failed ensures from it.
• Video is recorded on 64-bit Windows only. Every other platform runs the rest of the playtest and logs once that it records no video.

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Install the plugin

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Point the build at the playtest

Protokite finds the playtest from the Flock game version the build sends. Pressing Play now lists in the Play message log whatever would stop the playtest or change it, each with a link to the page that fixes it: an empty or unusable Protokite API URL, the Flock SDK’s analytics turned off, a Game Version that is not a playtest’s, and the settings a playtest session waits on. Nothing is said while Enable Playtesting is off.

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What the player is asked

A playtest build asks its player what it may collect, and collects nothing until they answer. The question is drawn over the game as soon as this build’s playtest loads, and offers four answers: record the screen and collect play data, the screen only, play data only, or nothing at all — which leaves the build behaving exactly as one with Enable Playtesting off. Their answer is kept on their machine and used by every later launch, and each session start carries playtest_consent and playtest_consent_asked, so a session with no recording reads as a player who asked for none rather than a build that went wrong. Your game can take the question over: Flock Get Playtest Consent reads the answer, Flock Set Playtest Consent records one from your own screens, and Flock Ask For Playtest Consent puts the question again — what a “change what this playtest collects” entry in a menu calls. Turn Ask The Player For Playtest Consent off in Flock Playtest Settings only where your players are asked another way, for an internal test on your own machines, or for an automated run with nobody there to answer; the build then collects what the playtest turns on, and every session says the player was never asked. An answer a player has already given is still honoured.

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Sign a player in

A playtest never signs a player in. The playtest session starts from the Flock session, and a Flock session starts once your game signs a player in, with Analytics Enabled and Analytics Auto Start Session on (or a Start Session call) and consent granted when Analytics Require Explicit Consent is on. A device sign-in is enough and needs no account. A playtest build with no sign-in screen of its own can sign in from the console of a Development build with Flock.LoginWithDevice.

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Watch it run

The log, under LogFlockPlaytest, says what the playtest is doing:

1. Playtesting is set up and waiting for the Flock SDK, then fetching this build’s playtest from Protokite.
2. Playtesting is ready, naming the playtest and the features it turns on.
3. The Protokite session started for this launch, once a player is signed in and the Flock session has reached the server.

The session then appears on the playtest’s Sessions page. It ends when the game shuts down, or earlier with Flock End Playtest Session. A later Flock session, a sign-out, or the Flock SDK initializing again neither ends nor restarts it: a launch is one session. In Blueprint, Flock Get Playtest Status answers the same question the log does, and Flock Describe Playtest Status turns it into the sentence the log uses.

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When something stops the playtest

The log says why and names the setting, once, as a warning.

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Shipping builds

A Shipping build that has Enable Playtesting on, or that carries a playtest’s pt- Game Version, gets a warning while it builds, and the build still succeeds. That warning comes from the plugin’s build rules, which a clean build reads and an unchanged rebuild skips — so package a release from a clean build. Build playtests as Development, and point Game Version back at a release version before you ship.

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Tell your players

A playtest build records the player’s screen when the playtest turns video on, and sends what they type into the feedback form. The build asks them first, and does what they answer, but tell your testers before they play all the same: what is recorded, that it goes to your studio’s Protokite playtest, and how to reach you to have it removed. That question is about this playtest alone — anything your game collects of its own is still yours to ask about. Nothing is collected unless Enable Playtesting is on in the build and the playtest in Protokite turns the feature on, and a build without the plugin collects none of it.