champs army

I'm making Throwdown Champs basically by myself. The nature of my work means that I'm generally focussed on one feature or bug-fix at a time, and when I'm testing, I'm testing to make sure that whatever I'm working on actually works.

Most of my testing takes place within Unity – the development environment I'm using to make Throwdown Champs – on a laptop. When I test on-device, it's typically a condensed test plan to make sure the build's stable enough to potentially share with other people. There's a lot going on under the hood of Throwdown Champs – it's a pretty complex beast, lots of moving parts – and me, by myself, can't hope to do what a formal QA department could do.

What I'm missing is for the game to be used, over time, in a manner close to that in which it's designed to be used.

And that's where you come in.

Throwdown Champs is exclusively for iPhone, so you'll need to be using one as your daily driver. Plus – it relies on a bit of tech in iOS called HealthKit, to which compatible apps and wearables beam health and workout data. So, you need either to be tracking your exercise (using Apple Watch, or some other HealthKit-compatible app or wearable), or be willing to start.

Assuming you're on iPhone and are logging your exercise, the next step is to get you set up with TestFlight.

TestFlight is Apple's service to allow developers (that's me!) to test pre-release versions of their games and apps with a live audience (that's you!).

Once I've grabbed your email address, I'll send an email invite out to you via the App Store Connect backend. If you don't have TestFlight installed, it'll prompt you to install it.

Once that's done, you'll be able to install the latest build of Throwdown Champs, and... we're off!

I'm not going to tell you anything about how the game works here. My hope is that, if the first-time user experience (FTUE) has done its job, the game'll tell you what you need to know to get started.

FTUEs are a nightmare to get right at the best of times, but Throwdown Champs has a harder job than most. You may not 'click' with the FTUE, and that's okay. I can't build something that works for everyone, every time. Most people, most of the time, and I'm happy. Obviously, if lots of people come back with the same pinch points, then I'll do something about it.

The build should be relatively stable from here. I've recently added a couple of big features off the back of feedback from OG Champs Army peeps, but that should be it for now I hope. Name of the game is balancing, bug-fixing, tweaking.

New builds that come through will automatically install, unless you set your TestFlight settings not to do so. Because I'm not adding features, the chances that a new version will break an old save file are low, but they're not zero.

I really want people to be using the game as it's 'supposed' to be used. That means: one or two or three quick sessions per day. Bear in mind that you might well not be the target audience for this, as you may already have healthy habits nailed. That's okay. If you still enjoy Throwdown Champs, then I'm probably onto a good thing. If not, then 🤷‍♀️ no biggie.

Earning Sweat by real-world workouts is obviously key to the game, so I want to make sure that that works, and works reliably, across a wide range of HealthKit-compatible apps and wearables. If you're using an Apple Watch to record your workouts, then the whole process should be pretty invisible; if you're using some else – say, like a Garmin watch – you'll likely need to go into the companion app for the wearable for the data to sync into HealthKit (although it may happen by itself (eventually); the whole process is a black box to us developers).

The two areas of code that are waaay riskier than basically everything else are (in-game) workouts, and going back into the game. Workouts are crazy-complicated, with timers, rep counts, fatigue, intensity, and more, all impacting what happens. Just keep an eye out for anything untoward or that looks dodgy.

And to give the illusion of going back to a world that's been ticking away in the background, I... do some complicated stuff. Suffice to say that if you're doing a full reload (via the wormhole) or an app-switch (via the clouds), then there's a lot going on. Just keep your eyes open for problems here.

Often, purging Throwdown Champs from memory entirely (instructions here), and then reloading, will help with problems.

You may come across something that completely breaks the game, though. That may be an existing bug that no-one else has found yet, or it may be because I rolled out a dodgy update. The ideal scenario here is that I get my hands on your save file. If we know each other in real life, we might be able to get this to happen (basically: I plug your phone into my laptop, and Xcode will let me see Throwdown Champs' save files, which I can then copy across to my machine to see what's crashing out). If it's terminal, though, you may have to delete the game entirely and start again. Not ideal, I know, but the whole idea of this testing phase is to iron out these problems.

If you do come across an issue, then a screenshot or a video would be great, as would as much contextual information as possible. Just an 'oh yeah, my workout didn't work' won't help anyone – but knowing which Champ, which workout, whether you'd just done a full reload or an app-switch, anything and everything you can remember.

A quick way to get me information is – return to your iPhone's Home Screen, and then long-press the Throwdown Champs icon. Because you're using a TestFlight build, you'll see a 'Send Beta Feedback' option. Gimme as much info as you can, plus there's the option to attach a screenshot (they're worth a thousand words yo). Send it on its way, and I'll get it.

General rule of thumb is: if I can't replicate it, I can't fix it. So the very best info you can give me is that which allows me to replicate whatever it is you saw.

Monetisation
The game's free to play, and I'm expecting the majority of Players to never part with any cash in my direction. There is gentle monetisation in there, though. I'm not telling you anything about it here; just rest assured that any transactions you make aren't real. You'd use your usual App Store login details, but the backend would know that this is a TestFlight Beta, and just 'pretend' to do the transaction. I do want to know that it at least theoretically works, though 😅🤞

Communication
If we know each other in real life, and it's okay by you, then WhatsApp would be ideal for quick questions / information / etc. One-to-one is fine, but I'll also make a Champs Army group chat. And I'll send you an invite to the Discord, too.

"I don't like it"
That's okay! You're allowed to not like it. And you're allowed to get bored of it, and you're allowed to stop playing it. Even if I'd made the best app in the world, the reality is that not everyone'll click with it, nor play it religiously. Stop, whenever you want, without guilt. All I'd ask is that you're honest with me (and with any follow-up questions I might ask). That you've shown an interest at all = a positive for me.

Prodding for Feedback
I initially didn't want to chase people in the Champs Army for their thoughts and feedback, as it makes this feel like work – and really, they're doing me a favour. But I've learned that if I don't, I often don't hear much back from people, and that's not a lot of use. So I'll likely start experimenting with some form of semi-formalised feedback. Don't be surprised if I ask you. And remember what I said above: you're allowed to stop, any time, without guilt. Just let me know.

Thank you!
Honestly, thanks a million ❤️ I've been working on this since the end of 2020, and I'm psyched (and terrified!) to finally be getting it into people's hands.