Getting Sign-Ups

This guide walks you through building a pipeline of interested players, from zero to a growing waitlist. It covers getting players — for what happens next (keys, invites, and access), see Getting Players Into Your Game.

How sign-ups work in 30 seconds

Every game has one Default Flow — the front door to your playtest. Players who sign up land on its Sign-Up step, then wait on the Waitlist until you invite them. Your homepage sign-up button, player.gg listing, and Discord recommendations all funnel players into this default flow automatically.

So getting sign-ups means three things:

1. Configure the flow that greets the public.
2. Make the waitlist worth joining.
3. Send traffic to it.

Step 1: Configure your sign-up step

Open Flows in your dashboard and select your default flow (out of the box, this is the Playtesters flow). On the Sign-Up step:

• Enable Sign Ups — nothing works until this is on.
• Account linking — enable at least one provider beyond email (Discord is a good default) to reduce spam. Require only what you truly need; every required connection costs conversions. You can ask for more accounts later, during onboarding.
• Sign-up form — add pre-screening questions (hardware, playtime, games played) if you plan to segment players later. A lightweight form converts better; a detailed form segments better. Both are valid — pick based on whether you expect more sign-ups than seats.
• Custom message — add a short pitch or video. Players who feel something was made for them stick around.

Preview as you go

Use the Preview tab (bottom-left of the flow editor) to see exactly what players will see. It updates in real time.

Step 2: Turn on the waitlist

On the Waitlist step, make sure Enable Waitlist is on. This holds players until you invite them — which is what lets you control cohort size and timing.

Then make the wait valuable:

• Discord — let players join your server directly from their dashboard, and optionally auto-join those who connected Discord at sign-up. This builds your community while players wait.
• Wishlist call-to-action — ask players to wishlist your game on Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation. A waitlist is a captive audience of exactly the people who will wishlist.
• Referrals — let players share a referral link, and optionally gamify it with goals and rewards. Your waitlist becomes its own acquisition channel.

Don’t need a waitlist?

If you want players to get in immediately on sign-up (e.g. an open beta), toggle the waitlist off — players will proceed straight to onboarding. If you do that, read Getting Players Into Your Game first so keys are granted automatically when they arrive.

Step 3: Send traffic to it

Your flow has a unique URL (e.g. https://yourgame.firstlook.gg/signup/playtester) — this is the link you share everywhere. Traffic sources, roughly in order of effort:

1. Your existing community — Discord, mailing list, social. Post the flow URL.
2. Your landing page — the homepage sign-up button sends players into the default flow. Make sure branding is set up so the page looks like your game, not a generic form.
3. player.gg — list your game to reach organic playtesters across the FirstLook network. This is free traffic; see How to List Your Game on player.gg.
4. Steam page → playtest — if you have a Steam page, point interested players at your flow URL rather than a bare Discord link, so every interested player is captured with contact info and pre-screening answers.

Step 4: Watch it fill

Sign-ups appear in the Players tab immediately, with source attribution so you can see which channel is working. Filter by sign-up form answers with +Add Condition → Questions to preview the cohorts you’ll invite later.

What’s next

A waitlist is only useful if players eventually get in. When you’re ready to admit them — with keys granted automatically, not assigned by hand — continue to Getting Players Into Your Game.