Sharing Your Game

Let people play your game without you there. Send a table link on any plan, or turn on Link access with Pro so anyone with your game's link can start a table.

Your games are private. Only you, the designers you invite as collaborators, and Playtest Parlor's administrators can open a game's page, see its table configurations and tables, or start a table of it. There are two ways to let other people play.

Start a table, then press Share Session at the table to copy its link. Anyone with that link can join that one table, signed in or not. This is the way to run a playtest you are part of.

With Link access on, anyone with your game's link can start a table of it themselves, without you there and without an account.

To turn it on, open your game, choose Settings, and switch on Anyone with the link can play under Link Access. Then share the link shown below the switch; Copy puts it on your clipboard. Only the game's owner can change the switch; collaborators see it but cannot change it.

A visitor who opens the link sees:

  • your game's name, your display name and the game's description;
  • links to its rules and resources, in the order you set them on the Resources tab;
  • a Play button.

They never see your table configurations, your other tables, or anyone else's table.

Play starts a new table set up from your newest table configuration, and takes the visitor to it. They can then share that table's link to bring friends.

  • You host these tables, and nobody pays for them.
  • They show in your Design Journal like any other table of your game, so a play you were not at still gives you its replay, outcomes and survey answers. A table that ends on its own with nobody seated leaves no entry.
  • They end on their own after an hour with nobody using them. You can also end one yourself from the Sessions tab.
  • Starting tables is limited so one person cannot fill your game with tables: each visitor can start 5 in a row, then 10 an hour, and your game can have 20 started in a row, then 60 an hour. Past that, the visitor is asked to try again in a few minutes.
  • Voice chat is set up for these tables as for any table. Only so many tables started from links across Playtest Parlor can have voice at once; when they all do, a new one starts without voice. The table still works, and anyone at it can press Retry Discord Setup a few minutes later, once another such table has ended.

Link access is part of Pro, Founding Member, Early Adopter and complimentary plans.

Your game's link is its page's address, such as playtestparlor.com/games/k97.... Give it a Link Name under Link Access in Settings and its link becomes playtestparlor.com/g/your-name instead, which is easier to say and type. The field starts with a name made from your game's name; change it and press Save Link Name.

  • A link name uses lowercase letters, numbers and dashes, from 3 to 40 characters, with no dash at either end and never two in a row. Capitals become lowercase and spaces become dashes as you save. A few words, such as play and admin, are kept for the site.
  • Each name belongs to one game. If another game already uses it, you are told so and offered a free one, such as big-cards-2.
  • Changing the name frees the old one straight away, and the old short link stops working. Clear the field and save to go back to the long link. Deleting the game frees its name too.
  • The short link opens exactly what the long one does. While Link access is off or your plan has ended, it says the game is not shared, and the name stays yours for when you turn it back on.
  • Setting a link name is part of Pro, and only the game's owner can change it. A game imported from a Playtest Parlor archive starts with no link name.

When your plan ends

Link access stops working the moment your paid period ends: when a cancelled plan runs out, or when a paused plan passes the date you had already paid through. From then on your game's link opens only for you and your collaborators again, and visitors are told the game is not shared. When a cancelled plan runs out, tables already running finish normally. When a paused plan passes its paid-through date, the game becomes read-only instead, and tables already running lock until you resume (see Pausing Your Subscription).

The switch itself stays on. Settings shows Not in effect: your Pro plan has ended. When you resubscribe or unpause, your game opens to its link again by itself, with nothing to turn back on. You can turn the switch off at any time, on any plan.