Beta Access

What a beta is#

A beta is a build running on its own server, reachable only by people who have the game's beta code. It is the middle ground between testing alone and going live:

• It does not touch your live server, your version number, or your public listing. Players browsing Discover never see it.
• Anyone with the code can join from the launcher, without being a member of your game or having any dashboard access.
• It is free, holds up to 10 players at a time, and expires on its own.

Use a beta when you want other people to play a specific build — a content update you are not sure about, a rebalanced combat pass, a new map — and tell you what breaks before you promote it. For solo iteration, Play Local in the editor is faster; see Test your game. For a build you are ready to ship, go straight to Launch and Hosting or Updates, Patches and Rollback.

Before you start#

• Push a build. Betas run on builds, so you need at least one build with the Ready badge on the dashboard. A previously live build (Archived) also qualifies. See Push a Build from the Editor.
• Be the game owner. Starting, stopping and viewing the beta are owner-only actions. Members with other roles see the game but cannot manage its beta.
• Your game does not need to be live. You can beta-test a game that is still in Development, and you can run a beta alongside a live game.

Start a beta#

1. Open your game on the Creator Dashboard and select the Update tab.
2. Under Destination, choose Beta (the other option, Live server, is the normal release path).
3. In the Builds list on the right, click the build to test. Only Ready and Archived builds are selectable; the current live build is not.
4. The note under the selected build reminds you what a beta does: it deploys the build to your beta server for playtesters, with no version bump, no scheduling and no update post.
5. Click Push to Beta. The panel shows Deploying to beta… while the server starts.
6. When the push finishes, the panel reads Build deployed to the beta server. and a purple Beta Server Active banner appears at the top of the game page with your code.

The build's badge in the list changes from Ready to Beta, and the editor's Build History shows it as BETA.

Share the code#

The Beta Server Active banner shows everything testers need:

• The beta code, in the form MYGAME-AB12CD34 — the first eight characters of your game's slug, upper case, followed by eight characters drawn from a set that leaves out I, O, 0 and 1 so it is unambiguous to read aloud. A copy button sits next to it.
• Which build is running: Build #7 · Combat rework.
• Time remaining before the beta expires, for example 6d 23h remaining.
• The live player count, 3/10 players.

Testers join from the Vastopia launcher, not from the website:

1. Open the launcher and sign in.
2. On the Home tab, find the JOIN A BETA section ("Have a beta code? Enter it below to play test a game.").
3. Paste the code into the field (placeholder Enter beta code (e.g. MYGAME-AB12CD34)) and click Join, or press Enter.
4. The launcher looks up the code, downloads the beta build's content, and connects to the beta server.

If the code is wrong, the beta has been stopped, or it has expired, the launcher shows Invalid or expired beta code. If the server is still starting it shows Beta server is not running. — ask the tester to try again in a minute.

Expiry#

A beta is temporary by design:

Each Push to Beta restarts the 7-day clock, so you can keep a beta alive by pushing again. It has to be a different build: the one already on beta carries the Beta status, which is neither selectable in the list nor accepted by the platform, so re-pushing that same build means Stop Beta first. You cannot extend it past 30 days from when the beta was first opened: when that cap is closer than 7 days away, the new expiry is the cap. Pressing Stop Beta resets the 30-day clock; an expiry that happens on its own does not, so if you want a fresh 30 days after a long-running beta, stop it explicitly before pushing again.

When the beta expires, the platform stops the server, clears the code, and returns the build to Ready. Testers who try the old code see Invalid or expired beta code.

Stop a beta#

1. On the game page, find the Beta Server Active banner.
2. Click Stop Beta on the right of the banner.

The server stops, the code is invalidated, the banner disappears, and the build's badge returns to Ready. If the stop fails, the banner stays and reads "Couldn't stop the beta server" with the reason — try again.

From beta to live#

A build that is on beta can go live without being re-pushed from the editor:

• First launch. The Launch wizard's Select a Build to Launch step lists both Ready and Beta builds, so you can pick the build your testers just validated. See Launch and Hosting.
• Already live. The Update tab only lets you select Ready or Archived builds for the live server, so first click Stop Beta (the build returns to Ready), then push it as a hotfix or update. See Updates, Patches and Rollback.

Troubleshooting#

With AI (MCP)#

There is no MCP tool to start or stop a beta; that happens on the dashboard. An assistant can read a running beta's server output with read_server_logs and mode:"beta" (the default mode reads the Play Local test server, and an unknown mode silently falls back to it), and list_builds shows which build carries the beta status.