Skybite: Tester Guide

Everything you need to know to test the game. Reading time: about 5 minutes.

Link to this guide: https://sventlasic.github.io/skybite/tester-guide.html

Thank you for helping! Skybite is a free Android arcade game: six short survival scenes, each getting harder until it beats you. No account of its own, no sign-up, and everything except the ads, the online rankings and the two-phone mode works without the internet.

Before the game can go public on Google Play, Google requires at least 12 testers to stay in the test for 14 days in a row. That is the main thing we need from you, plus anything wrong you notice along the way.

1. What we need from you

Time	About 20 minutes to try every scene, then play now and then for 14 days
You need	An Android phone (Android 7.0 or newer) and a Google account
Please don't	Uninstall the game or leave the test before day 14. If we drop below 12 testers, the 14 days start over for everyone
Bonus	Tell us what is too hard, too easy, confusing, or broken, and how long you lasted

2. How to join (do this once)

1. Send us the Google email you use in the Play Store on your phone. The invite only works for that address.
2. Open the tester link after we tell you that you have been added: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.sventlasic.skybite
3. Tap Become a tester. The page then says you are a tester. This step is what Google counts.
4. Tap download it on Google Play on that page, and install the game.

Install from Google Play only. A game file sent by chat does not count toward the 12 testers.

It can take a few hours after joining before the game appears in the Play Store. If it says "item not found", wait a bit and open the link again.

Testing Civil Service Reviewer Today too? It has its own tester link. Join both, one link per app.

3. First run

1. The home page shows SINGLE PLAYER, VERSUS BATTLE (LAN) and SETTINGS. There is no sign-in.
2. SINGLE PLAYER opens the SCENES list: six games. The first three are open; the last three say LOCKED (see section 5).
3. The first time you play a scene, it teaches itself with a few short prompts over the real game. You can tap SKIP. Each scene has its own tutorial switch on the SCENES list, if you want a lesson again.
4. If you are in Europe or the UK, Google may ask about ad consent. Either answer is fine; the game works the same.

4. What to try

You don't have to do everything, but the more you cover, the more useful your help is. Please play every scene at least twice, and tell us your best time in each.

Survival (the main game)

• Move up and down with UP / DOWN, shoot with FIRE. Every arrow pops one balloon off a falling animal
• Let an animal land: it takes the block beside you, and that block bites whenever you stand in its row
• Use SPECIAL (it sweeps a band of the sky)
• Get past 2:30 (the ice) and 3:45, where you choose between a tower and an archer to help you

Monkey Memory

• Remember who hides under which leaf (the leaves move!), then tap the one the monkey calls
• Try each lifeline: REVEAL, NARROW, WHISPER

Balloon Climb

• Slide to steer. Dodge animals, coconuts and storm clouds; grab the gold + balloons

Shrinking Land, Monkey Whack, Sky Bridge (unlock them first, section 5)

• Shrinking Land: drag the left stick to walk, and drag the right one the way you want to shoot. Step off the edge when it flashes red; walk onto a power-up to take it
• Monkey Whack: whack only the animal on the monkey's sign. Watch for NOT THIS ONE!
• Sky Bridge: slide your thumb left or right, anywhere below the top of the screen, to walk; the bow shoots on its own. Keep animals from breaking your planks

Around the game

• After a game over: tap to play again, SHARE your result, SCENES to pick another game
• Open the gear during a game: turn music and sound on and off, then RESUME. Try BACK TO SCENES
• On the home page, open SETTINGS: the Privacy Policy and Terms links, RATE SKYBITE, and the version number at the bottom
• Try a game with Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off. It should still work (the ad space stays empty or shows one of our own apps)

Rankings (from update 1.0.5; needs Google Play Games)

• Tap RANKINGS on the home page and sign in to Play Games when Google asks. Nothing should ask you before you tap it (fixed in 1.0.7)
• Check the top right says playing as your Play Games name, and your row is gold
• Try the scene tabs, ALL TIME / WEEK and EVERYONE / FRIENDS (FRIENDS asks Google's permission first)
• Finish a run: the game-over screen should show your place, like #3 worldwide

Versus (needs two phones on the same Wi-Fi)

• One phone taps HOST A RUN, the other JOIN A RUN and picks it from the list
• Play to the end and answer PLAY AGAIN? on both phones

5. Things that are supposed to be like this

Not bugs, no need to report them:

• The ads are test ads. During testing, banners and videos say "Test Ad". Tapping them is safe: they earn and cost nothing.
• Sometimes the banner is one of our own apps, marked OUR APP, instead of an ad. That is our own promotion, shown when Google has no ad.
• Three scenes are locked. Shrinking Land, Monkey Whack and Sky Bridge each unlock for good by watching one short video ad to the end. Closing it early unlocks nothing. If no ad loads, it says so, and after three tries the scene opens free. With no internet it asks you to connect instead, and that does not count as a try. (From update 1.0.1: while the ad loads, a LOADING THE AD... screen counts down from 20 seconds with a CANCEL button, and if no ad comes it says why and offers TRY AGAIN.) (Before update 1.0.2 Balloon Climb was locked and Shrinking Land free; if you had either, Shrinking Land stays open for you.)
• Every scene gets very hard. That is the design: each one keeps speeding up until it wins. Surviving a long time is meant to be rare.
• In Survival, the Back button does nothing during a run, so an accidental swipe cannot throw your run away. In the other scenes, Back asks first: press it twice to leave.
• In Monkey Memory and Monkey Whack the gear does not pause. The clock is the challenge there; the settings screen covers the board instead and says the game is still running.
• Your bests stay on this phone. The online rankings are separate: they show only what you sent while signed in to Play Games, so they can differ from your bests on the SCENES list.
• Rankings are Google Play Games' own. Your name there is your Play Games name (often made up, like "YellowSentence175"). To change account, use the Play Games app; a game cannot switch it. WEEK starts over every Sunday at 3 PM Philippine time.
• Survival has two bests: the best score (points) and the best time. The SCENES list and the rankings use the time.
• Versus may not find the other phone on some home networks (two routers, or "guest" Wi-Fi). Use TYPE AN ADDRESS on the joining phone, or put both phones on the same router.
• iPhone: there is no iPhone version.

6. Your privacy

• There is no account of the game's own. We don't know your name or email from the game.
• Your scores, settings and unlocked scenes are stored on your phone. The only exception is the optional rankings: if you sign in to Play Games from RANKINGS, your results go to Google's leaderboards under your Play Games name. We never receive them.
• The ads come from Google AdMob, which receives the information described in our Privacy Policy: https://sventlasic.github.io/skybite/privacy.html
• SHARE only hands a line of text to your phone's share menu. You choose where it goes; the game sends nothing itself.

7. Found a problem? Tell us

Email nevssupplies+skybite@gmail.com, or message Sven directly, whichever is easier.

These help us fix it faster:

1. Your phone (for example Redmi Note 13) and Android version (Settings → About phone)
2. The game version, shown at the bottom of Skybite's SETTINGS on the home page
3. Which scene, and roughly how long into the run it happened
4. What you did, what you expected, and what happened instead
5. A screenshot or screen recording, if you can. This helps the most.

Feel matters as much as bugs: a button that is hard to hit, a thumb that keeps covering something, a scene that is unfair rather than hard, a moment that is boring. Honest reactions are worth more than polite ones.

8. If something goes wrong

Problem	Try this
"Item not found" in the Play Store	You haven't tapped Become a tester yet, or you joined with a different Google account than the one on your phone. Open the link again and check the account.
The game won't install	An older copy may still be on the phone, also in Second space, Dual apps or a work profile on Xiaomi, Samsung and similar phones. Uninstall it everywhere, then install from the Play Store.
A locked scene says "no ad right now"	Check your internet and try again. After three tries the scene opens free.
No sound	Check the gear (or home SETTINGS): Background music and Sound effects are separate switches. Also check the phone's media volume.
The Play Store offers an update	Please update. We send fixes during the test.

9. The 14 days

Day	What happens
Day 0	You tap Become a tester and install the game
Days 1 to 13	Keep it installed. Play now and then, for example a few runs every couple of days
Day 14	We apply to Google for the public launch

The one thing that breaks this is leaving the test or uninstalling early. If the count drops below 12, the 14 days restart for everyone. If you need to leave, please tell us first so we can find someone else.

The full list of what the game is supposed to do is here, if you want to check something against it: https://sventlasic.github.io/skybite/frs.html

Thank you. This game cannot be published without you.