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A newsletter you have been growing at conventions, on your site, and through social is already a list of people who want your game. Pulling it into Userplay turns those subscribers into players you can invite, screen, and put on a roster.

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What you need first

  • A Mailchimp audience with subscribers in it.
  • Room under your studio’s player limit. Every contact that arrives becomes a player.
  • The Admin role or above, if Mailchimp is not connected yet.

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The playbook

1

Connect with a direction that pulls

Go to Integrations and set up Mailchimp with Two-way or Pull from Mailchimp.Already connected on push only? Open the Contact sync card and change the direction.

Sync your players with Mailchimp

Playbook: the whole connect flow, step by step.

Contact sync

What each of the three directions moves.
2

Let the first pull run

On the Mailchimp tab, open the Connection card and click Sync now.Give it a few minutes. A large audience arrives across several runs.
3

Find them in the directory

Open Groups in the sidebar and switch to the Mailchimp tab.The roster named after your audience holds everyone who arrived.
This roster is read-only. It mirrors your audience, so the way to change who is on it is to change the audience in Mailchimp.
4

Sort them into a group you own

Go to Players, filter down to the people you want, and click Add to existing group.

Sort players into groups

Playbook: filter the directory and save the selection as a roster.

Build a group you can reuse

Playbook: a roster you seed every future playtest from.
5

Recruit from it

Seed a closed playtest from the group, or publish a waitlist and mail the link to your audience.

Run a closed playtest

Playbook: only the people you seed by email can join.

Recruit with a waitlist

Playbook: let them join themselves, screened on the way in.

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Watch your player limit

An import stops when your studio runs out of player capacity, and the Connection card says so. Outbound syncing carries on the whole time, and the import picks up where it stopped once you have room. Two ways to make room: change plan, or remove players you no longer need. Removing only frees capacity on Essential and above.

Plans and limits

The player ceiling on each plan, and how it is counted.

Pick the right plan

Playbook: read your usage before you commit to a bigger list.

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How you know it worked

  • The All players count on the Players page has climbed.
  • The Mailchimp tab on the Groups page holds a roster with a member count close to your audience size.
  • The Tags table lists any custom group you built from them.
  • Searching a subscriber’s address in the directory turns up a player.

Your Mailchimp audience

The roster your audience fills, and what it will not let you do.

Adding players

Every other path a person takes into the directory.

Migrate your players

Playbook: a list that lives somewhere other than Mailchimp.

Email one playtest's players

Playbook: mail them back once they have joined something.