u/Exact_Somewhere_1776

Hey guys,

I’m a solo dev and I realized that getting people to actually playtest an indie game and give real, constructive feedback is a nightmare. Fiverr charges developers massive 20% fees to hire QA testers, which is crazy for indie budgets.

So over the last few weeks, I coded a free, two-sided marketplace specifically for indie devs to find playtesters. I even built a "Video Portfolio" feature so testers can upload clips of them breaking games, so devs can see their feedback quality before accepting them. (I also integrated Stripe with a 0% platform fee so devs can do cash bounties).

I quietly launched it yesterday, and surprisingly, the tester side of my funnel worked! I had a few experienced QA testers (including a 12-year pro) sign up overnight.

Here is my problem: I now have an "empty restaurant." I have pro testers waiting on the site right now, but I have absolutely 0 games posted for them to test.

For those of you who have launched tools or games before, how do you overcome the "Chicken and Egg" problem of a two-sided marketplace? Should I be cold-DMing developers on Twitter? Should I be doing fake game listings just to keep the testers engaged?

Would love any advice on how to get my first 3 developers onto the platform so my testers don't leave! (Not dropping the link here so I don't break the self-promo rules, just genuinely looking for launch advice).

Hey guys! Solo dev here.

I realized getting people to actually playtest indie games and give real, constructive feedback (instead of just saying "looks good bro" and ghosting) is a nightmare.

A lot of devs use Fiverr to hire QA testers, but Fiverr takes a massive 20% cut and charges developers hidden fees. So I decided to code a better solution.

I built DevPick: A 100% free, two-sided marketplace for indie devs and playtesters.

• The Stack: Next.js, Tailwind, Supabase (Auth/Storage).*
• The Tech: I built a "Video Portfolio" feature where testers can upload 30-second clips of them breaking games, so devs can see if they actually give good feedback before accepting them.*
• The Payment: I integrated Stripe so devs can offer cash bounties for finding bugs. I set the platform fee to exactly 0%.*

I literally just launched yesterday and actually got my first few pro testers signed up overnight! But my site is currently an "empty restaurant" (0 games posted yet).

Would love some brutal feedback from other developers on the UI, the tech stack, or the landing page!

Want to play unreleased indie games for Steam keys? I built a free site to connect gamers directly with indie devs.