Invite players (Early Access)

Sometimes you want a small group to play your game while it's still being built, without putting it in the public Discover grid. Early Access is that: a per-player invitation that grants the Player role on your project, with access to the latest preview build at any time.

When to use Early Access

• Closed beta. Friends, playtesters, a Discord community — give them a stable channel to your latest build while you keep iterating.
• Embedded preview. A blog post or pitch deck that needs a playable prototype but you don't want it in public Discover yet.
• NDA / pre-launch. You want feedback from specific people only.

If you want a fully public game, use Publishing instead — there's no Player role required.

Inviting someone

In the editor, open ≡▾ → Members. The Members modal has three sections:

• Owner — you.
• Collaborators — people who can edit / chat with the agent. See Collaborators.
• Players — invited Early Access viewers.

To invite a Player:

What the player sees

• Notification (in their Umicat bell icon) — "X invited you to play their game Y. Accept / Decline."
• Email invitation — same content, with a link that resolves to <Domain />/invite/{token}. If they're not signed in, they're redirected to sign-up first (with the invitation preserved).
• After accepting, the game appears in their Early Access page at <Domain />/early-access. The sidebar also has an Early Access section listing all games they've been invited to.

When the player clicks into the game, they go to /play/{gameId}?preview=true which:

• Always serves the latest preview (not the last published build). Each new commit you make is immediately visible to them.
• Hides like / favorite / comment / play-count sections (it's a preview, not a public release).

Player vs Collaborator

A Collaborator's chat turns deduct from your credit balance — the project owner's. Be selective. A Player's actions cost nothing.

Revoking access

In ≡▾ → Members → Players, hover over any player and click the X. A confirm modal appears; confirming removes them. Their notification / email link will no longer work; they can't access the game's preview.

If you publicly publish the game later, ex-Players can still play the public URL like anyone else — Player removal only revokes the preview access, not public play.

Pending invitations

The Members modal lists pending invitations (sent but not yet accepted) with a status chip and an option to revoke. Revoked invitations clear out of the invitee's notifications.

Email invite quirks

• Emails come from a noreply@umicat.ai address. Recipients sometimes see them in promotions / spam. Mention this when inviting.
• The link works for ~7 days; after that the token expires and you need to re-send.
• If the email belongs to an existing Umicat account, the invitation is delivered as a notification too. They can accept from either path.

Use case examples

Closed beta with a Discord group

Add 8 close friends as Players. Channel feedback into a single
support-ticket thread; they can play whenever they want; I keep
iterating without publishing.

Pitch deck with a playable prototype

Add the 3 stakeholders as Players. They can play the prototype any
time during review. After the meeting, I either publish or unfork
the project.

Family-only experimental game

Add 5 family members as Players via email. They get a link; I never
have to publish; the game stays private forever.

Next steps