Getting Players Into Your Game

You have players signed up (if not, start with Getting Sign-Ups). This guide covers getting them into your game — and specifically, doing it so keys are granted automatically the moment a player onboards, instead of assigning keys by hand one player at a time.

The chain that makes it automatic

Four pieces connect to form the automatic path:

Key Type  →  Role (Unlocks)  →  Invite  →  Player onboards, key granted

1. A key type holds your uploaded keys (Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, …).
2. A Role lists which keys to grant in its Unlocks section.
3. An invite admits a player with that role.
4. When the player finishes onboarding, FirstLook grants the key from your pool — no manual step.

If you find yourself assigning keys to players one by one, one of these links is missing. Set them up once, and every future invite handles itself.

Step 1: Upload keys

Go to Keys and create a key type for your platform, then import your keys. For Steam specifically, see Add Keys for how to request keys from Steamworks — and consider a Steam Playtest app rather than release-state-override keys for your main game.

Key types exist for all major platforms (Steam, Epic, EA, PlayStation, Xbox, Google Play, TestFlight, and custom types for anything else). The Keys page shows your remaining inventory, and you’ll be notified when a pool runs low.

No keys? No problem

If your build is distributed another way — Steam beta branches for an existing app, or a direct download hosted on a page — you can skip key types. Roles still control who gets access to what.

Step 2: Attach keys to a Role

This is the step most studios miss — and the reason they end up granting keys manually.

Open your flow, go to its Roles, and in the Unlocks section select the key type(s) this role should grant. While you’re there:

• Discord roles — grant server roles on onboarding, so testers land in the right channels automatically.
• Invites — optionally let onboarded players invite friends directly (capped, with a role of your choosing). Friend invites skip sign-up and waitlist entirely.
• NDA — require one or not, per role. Different roles can have different requirements (e.g. press without NDA, testers with).

Create one role per access level: Playtester grants a Steam key, VIP grants a key plus 3 friend invites, Press skips the NDA. Roles are what let one flow serve many audiences.

Step 3: Let players in

With keys attached to roles, admitting players is just choosing who and when. Three routes:

From your waitlist

The standard path. Use Invite by Conditions to admit a targeted cohort — filter by sign-up answers, hardware, country, connected accounts — or Bulk Invite to admit a batch. Pick the role that carries the right unlocks, and consider segmentation to structure your waves.

Direct invites (skipping the waitlist)

For people who were never on your waitlist — friends, press, partners:

• Invite by email — one-off, personal.
• Codes and batches — shareable invite codes, good for events or creator drops.
• Import — bring an existing list (e.g. from a previous test) via CSV.

Invited players skip sign-up and waitlist and go straight to onboarding.

Open the gates

For an open test, disable the waitlist — players flow from sign-up straight through onboarding and receive their unlocks immediately. Make sure your key pool is large enough before doing this.

Step 4: The player gets in — automatically

When an invited player completes onboarding, everything attached to their role happens at once: their key is granted from your pool, Discord roles are assigned, and their dashboard shows the key with platform-specific redemption instructions. Nothing for you to do.

You can verify it worked:

• Keys page — see which keys were assigned, to whom, and when. Keys can be revoked or deleted if needed.
• Player profile — each player’s page in the Players tab shows their role, key, and onboarding status.
• If you’re on Steam and asked players to connect their Steam account during onboarding, playtime tracking starts as soon as they play.

Common pitfalls

• Inviting before attaching keys to the role. Players onboard and receive… nothing. Attach keys in Role → Unlocks first, then invite.
• Inviting with the wrong role. The role selected at invite time determines the unlocks. Double-check when inviting mixed cohorts.
• Manually assigning keys as the default workflow. Manual assignment exists for exceptions (replacing a bad key, a special case) — if it’s your routine, revisit Step 2.
• Empty key pool mid-wave. Check inventory on the Keys page before a big invite wave; invites don’t pause when keys run out.

What’s next

Players are in — now close the loop: gather feedback with Surveys, watch playtime and retention, and use Sentiment and Discord to hear what they’re saying. To find your best testers for the next wave, see Identify Most Engaged Players.