Building the Table: Dev Diary #2 — We're on TestFlight

Last diary, I told you the iPhone app was headed for TestFlight. Today I get to change the tense: it’s there. Bid Whist Forever is now a real iPhone app sitting on Apple’s beta servers, and we’re adding the first family to the table.

If you’ve never heard of TestFlight, it’s just Apple’s way of letting real people play an app before it hits the App Store — the dress rehearsal before opening night. Same table, same game, on your actual phone.

What a day of real testing taught us

I say it every time because it’s true every time: real family on real phones finds what no lab ever will. We spent the day at the kitchen table with the app and a pot of coffee, and the game walked away sturdier for it.

• Leaving a table now stays left. Forfeit a hand, and it’s done — no game following you around, no ghost score screen chasing you into the next one. When you’re out, you’re out; when you sit back down, it’s a fresh deal.
• You can see your cards when it counts. On the phone, the bidding and trump menus were sitting right on top of your hand — asking you to bid without letting you look at what you’re bidding. Now those menus rise up above your cards, so you can read your hand and make the call.
• The lessons stay in the lessons. The little coaching helpers were sneaking into regular games. They belong in Learn and Practice, only when you ask for them — so that’s where they stay now. A real game is a real game.

None of that is glamorous. All of it is the difference between an app that works and a table that feels like home.

Want a seat at the beta table?

We’re inviting iPhone players in now, and there’s room for you. Here’s all it takes:

Head to our feedback form, choose “General thoughts,” tell us you want to test on iPhone, and leave the email tied to your Apple ID — that’s the email you use for the App Store on your phone. That’s the one Apple sends the invite to, so it has to match.

We’ll add you to the testing group, you’ll get an email from Apple, and a couple taps later you’re dealing hands from your pocket.

The table keeps getting better because people keep sitting down at it. Come sit down.