Playtesting and playing with private packages

Not all games you create should be accessible for everyone, or you may have a prototype that you want to test that isn’t ready to go public yet. You can make your package private by checking the “Private” checkbox when you upload you package in the editor. If you want to make it public later, uncheck the checkbox when uploading a new version or change the visibility in the Edit section of the mod.io page of your mod.

If you want to play with others while your package is still private, you can use preview feature of mod.io. It allows you to add other users who will have access to your package directly, or generate a preview link that others can use to subscribe. To add other users to for your mod, open the mod.io page, go to “Package Admin”, then “Preview”, and change the “Enable preview link” option to “Users with access only” and press Update. You can then add users by their mod.io username (identical to their Steam or Epic username if they haven’t changed it). They can then subscribe to the package through the mod.io page when they are logged in with their Steam/Epic account, or in-game when they try to join a game that uses your private package.

Instead of adding users manually, you can also use preview links: Change the “Enable preview link” option to “Anyone with preview URL” and press Update. You’ll see a link below that you can share with your players. If they are logged in using their Steam account (or Epic if they own Tabletop Playground on Epic Games Store or Microsoft store), they can subscribe and the package will be downloaded in-game. Since the preview links work through the regular browser, make sure that your players are logged in to mod.io with their Steam/Epic account! If they have already created an account using their mail address, they can link it with their Steam/Epic account by clicking on their user name in the upper right and selecting “My Account”. At the bottom of the page there’s a “Connected Accounts” section, switching on the Steam or Epic icon will open a prompt asking them to log in with their account.

You can find more information about previews in the mod.io blog post: https://blog.mod.io/insider-invite-now-live-on-mod-io-c3c2d6568d3f