Welcome, tester.

You’re reading this because someone trusts you with a half-finished version of a game we care about. Thank you. Bugs are inevitable; your reproductions are gold. Your guesses about why something broke are interesting but optional — what we really need is what you saw, what you expected, and how to make it happen again.

Take your time, play how you want to play, and tell us when something feels off.

Start Here — Read These First

Set Up for Testing

A short pre-flight checklist. Most testers can finish this in five minutes, then forget it ever existed.

• Open the personalized link your admin sent

  It looks like https://backchannel.gg/welcome?t=.... The page reveals your access code and links you straight into the app with the code pre-filled.

• Sign in with Google

  Single sign-in. If you came in through the personalized welcome link, your access code auto-fills and submits after a beat — no copy-paste.

• Install Backchannel as an app

  This is what unlocks turn notifications. On iPhone, this is required — push doesn't work in a Safari tab. On Android it's strongly recommended; on desktop it's optional polish. See platform-specific instructions below ↓

• Allow notifications when prompted

  Backchannel asks once. If you missed the prompt, your phone or browser settings has a "Site settings" or "App permissions" page where you can re-enable it.

• Find the bug-report button

  It follows you everywhere — top bar on home, top bar in the editor, HUD bar in-game. The icon looks like a small bug. Tapping it opens the report form (more on that below).

Install as PWA

The block below shows the steps for your platform automatically. Desktop visitors see the desktop steps; mobile visitors see iOS or Android instructions based on their device.

How to Report a Bug

Bug reports route directly to a Discord forum thread tagged by category. The team triages in-thread, asks follow-up questions if needed, and updates you when the fix lands.

Where the button lives

The bug button follows you. It’s in the same spot regardless of where you are in the app — the top bar on home, the top bar in the editor, and the HUD bar in-game. Look for this icon:

The form

Tap the icon and a form opens. Four fields:

• Category — single-select. Pick the most specific one that applies. This is required and routes the report to the right Discord tag.
• Features — multi-select. Tag every feature your bug touches. Routing-only; no impact on the report content.
• Players — multi-select, in-game only. Tag the players involved so we can pull the right game state.
• Description — free text. Minimum 10 characters, but you’ll usually want more. Spell out what you expected, what happened, and how to make it happen again.

There’s a 30-second debounce after each successful submit, so you can’t accidentally double-fire. If you do hit a second bug right after the first, take a breath and submit it cleanly.

What makes a good report

1. Expected vs. actual. “I attacked from A to B and the dice rolled but no troops moved” is more useful than “attack is broken.”
2. Repro steps. Walk us back to the moment. “Open game X, take my turn, click attack from A to B” beats “happens sometimes.”
3. Tag the players if you’re in-game. We can pull the relevant game state and replay your turn from server logs.
4. Pick the most specific category. “Combat” beats “Game”; “Reinforce” beats “Combat” when reinforce is what broke.
5. One bug per report. If you see two issues, file two reports. They’ll route to different tags and get triaged independently.

What Happens After You Submit

Your report becomes a thread on our Discord forum channel, automatically tagged by the category you picked. Each category maps to a dedicated forum tag — Combat, Cards, Signals, Lobby, Rendering, and so on — and the tag routes the thread to the person who owns that area.

The team reads new threads within a day and replies in-thread. Expect one of three things:

• A clarifying question. “Can you repeat the attack with a different source?” We ask when the repro is ambiguous or when the state you described doesn’t match what we’d expect.
• A confirmation. “Reproduced, filed — thanks.” The bug is logged into our tracker and you’ll see the thread tagged with a status.
• A resolution update. When the fix ships (usually in the next release), we reply to the thread with the version and close it.

If you’ve been added to the Discord (see below), you’ll be mentioned on your own threads and can follow along. If you haven’t, the team still sees and acts on your reports — you just won’t see the replies until you join.

Stay in Touch

Whoever sent you this link also has an invite to the project Discord — ask them for it. The Discord is where playtests are coordinated, where bug discussions happen, and where you’ll get the earliest look at what’s coming next.

If your referrer can’t get you connected, email testers@igelwerks.net and we’ll route you in.