Reply To: A Playtesting Pool

[piersParticipant 25489xp 2]

Our playtesters have to sign a non-disclosure form, but nothing out of the norm, fairly standard really. So some companies may ask you to do so.

If you do playtest, make sure that they give you clearly defined parameters or scenarios, forces and outcomes to report on. Make notes… but most of all… make the effort to playtest. We have found in the past that alot of people ask to playtest… but very few follow up on it. Few of those provide feedback that can be of use, but that’s where the design team need to provide guidance to the playtest team so they know what and how to feedback. We developed a simple single page feedback form to be used after each game.

Good playtesters are a gold mine. A resource to cherish. Especially those that can understand your ethos but also report critically. A ganes designer should also listen to them and not be too precious over their ideas… but also, sometimes, playtesters may just be wrong. The designer has the final call.

We now run two ‘in-house’ playtest teams and then two ‘blind’ beta test teams. It does take up alot of time. We spent 18 months playtesting Battlegroup and that was on top of three years work on its previous incarnation. NorthAG is now coming up on two years on playtesting before it goes out to beta testing.

A resource of willing and able playtesters would be a boon, but also people and companys have to realise that playtesting a game takes time…