How to publish your vbgnt game to the Google Play Store

Google Play has the cheapest entry fee of any real store and the most surprising obstacle. The fee is $25, once, forever. The obstacle is that a new personal developer account cannot ship to production until it has run a closed test with at least 12 testers, opted in continuously for 14 days.

That rule catches almost everyone, because it is invisible until you have already built the thing and gone looking for the publish button. Plan for it first and the rest of this is straightforward.

The testing requirement, in detail

It applies to personal Play Console accounts created after 13 November 2023. Organization accounts, registered against a real legal entity, are exempt. The requirement was 20 testers when it launched and was reduced to 12 in December 2024, so older guides you find will disagree with this one.

The requirement is 12 testers who have opted into your closed test and stayed opted in for 14 continuous days. Not 12 installs, not 12 people who tried it once. If someone opts out on day nine, your count drops and the clock is affected. Only after you meet the bar can you apply for production access, and that application is itself reviewed.

Two practical consequences:

• Recruit before you build. Twelve people who will actually tap a link and leave it installed for two weeks is a bigger ask than it sounds. Line them up first.
• If you will ship more than one game, get an organization account. It costs more effort up front and skips this entirely, every time, forever.

This is also a good argument for shipping to itch.io the same week you make the game and treating Play as the slow track.

Step 1: the project

Download the project zip from the studio's Files tab and open it in Godot 4. As with iOS, the input work is already done: vbgnt games ship multitouch on-screen controls that appear only when a touchscreen is present, plus full gamepad support that works with a Bluetooth controller paired to a phone.

What needs your attention is the sheer range of Android hardware. Test on the oldest device you can find rather than the newest, because that is where a generated 3D scene will show you its true framerate.

Step 2: the Android export toolchain

Godot needs three things installed before it will export Android: the Android SDK, a JDK, and Godot's own Android build template. Point Godot at the SDK path in Editor Settings, then install the build template into the project.

You also need a keystore. This is the file that signs your app, and it matters more than any other file in this process: lose it and you cannot update your own game. Generate one, back it up somewhere that is not your laptop, and use Play App Signing so Google holds the release key while you keep an upload key.

Step 3: target the right API level

Play enforces a minimum target API level and it moves every year. From 31 August 2026, new apps and updates must target Android 16, API level 36, or they are rejected at upload. Existing apps had to reach at least API level 35 by the same date. Play moves this floor every year, so confirm the current one before building.

Godot sets the target level in the export preset, so check it matches before you build. If your Godot version predates API 36 support, updating Godot is the fix, and it is easier to do that before you have a released app than after.

Step 4: export an App Bundle, not an APK

Play requires the Android App Bundle format (.aab) for new apps. Godot's Android export preset has a checkbox for it. An APK is still useful for testing on your own device directly, but the thing you upload is the bundle.

Install the APK on a real phone and play it properly before uploading anything. Check the touch controls sit where thumbs actually are, that the game handles a back gesture without quitting to the home screen unexpectedly, and that audio resumes correctly after you switch apps and come back.

Step 5: the store listing and the forms

Play wants a specific set of assets and two questionnaires that are more consequential than they look:

• App icon at 512x512, and a feature graphic at 1024x500.
• Screenshots, at minimum for phone, ideally for tablet too.
• A short description and a full description.
• A privacy policy URL, required whether or not you collect anything.
• The Data safety form, declaring what you collect and share. Answer it accurately. Play actively checks declarations against app behaviour, and a wrong answer here is an enforcement problem rather than a paperwork one.
• The content rating questionnaire, which generates your IARC ratings.

Step 6: the release tracks

Play gives you internal, closed, open and production tracks. Internal testing is instant and takes up to 100 testers, which is where you should live while you are fixing things.

Closed testing is the track that satisfies the 12-tester requirement, so that is where the 14-day clock runs. Open testing is optional. Production is what you unlock at the end.

Use internal testing hard before you start the closed test. The 14 days only count while the test is running, and you do not want to be pushing bug fixes into the run that is meant to be proving your app is stable.

The honest read

Google Play is the best-value store on paper. Twenty-five dollars once, no Mac required, a review process that is far less adversarial than Apple's, and an install base larger than anything else here.

The catch is entirely front-loaded. Two weeks of a closed test with a dozen real humans is not a technical problem you can solve on a Saturday, and it is a strange amount of ceremony for a game that took an afternoon to make.

So the sensible order is the same as everywhere else in this series. Ship it to your arcade, where it already is. Put it on itch, which takes minutes. And if it turns out to be the game that deserves a store listing, start the Play testing clock early, because it is the part you cannot rush.