Playtesting Without Playtesters

playtesting yourself is real important, you can usually identify flaws, and dud games quite quickly. But what is important is that you have to learn to be honest with yourself; when you playtest with others often you find yourself defending aspects of your game against criticism, which is okay as long as you listen, but when you are by yourself if you ignore your own criticism you blind yourself to your games flaws.

to playtest others it helps to change your style, such as with one imaginary player you can be particulalry aggressive, with another particularly defensive.

now you just need to flirt with schizophrenia to get it right.

Hello all, this is my first post on the board. Been trolling here for about a week but having just started my first game's design I figured I had plently to listen too and not that much to add. But in this case I do have some unique experience that relates.

I actually started as a playtester for a major video game company. Spent 3 years testing all facets of games, so when I started designing my own game (a CCG) I figured playtesting would be my strong suit.

Maybe it is, but not to the degree I thought. I know I'm an excellent playtester and have great instincts when testing a game but when it comes to one I'm designing I really lose a lot of the perspective I had as someone outside of the design team.

I know from experience one of the biggest obstacles in a game is when players don't do things the way the designer intended. In video games that might be taking a wrong turn or clicking the menu in the wrong order; in more traditional games that might be rules comprehension or a strategy choice. And there's nothing I can do as a game designer to fix a problem I can't see without feedback from someone else.

A couple of suggestions I'm planning on using (I've modified them from screenwritting courses) involve getting people together that aren't involved in the game and have them play it without me while I observe--QUITELY. Only done this a few times with friends but once they become to familiar with it I'll have to get feedback through other sources. I have some other friends who are not as willing to "beta" test a game but wouldn't mind playing a game some night. Once the game is up for it, I'll schedule a day for us to play a new game--my own.

Once I've exhausted my freinds I plan to head down to a local game shop or two and offer to buy some of the people there a pack of Magic or whatever if theyll play my game for a while.

The key is to be invisible during the testing, if you end up explaining things you'll end up "contaminating" the input from the testers. If things are going way off base simply stop it, make one or two adjustments and have them start all over again. If it still doesn't work or it will take more adjustments thank everyone for their time, give them their "payment" and go home...you already found out enough about what's wrong with the game to keep you busy for a while.

A lot of great input! I am also a big fan of solo playtesting. I find that I can fine-tune the mechanics (or come up with cool new ones) when I solo playtest and weed out game possibilities that are too weak/too powerful or just plain don't work.

I then use a group of friends of family members to playtest the more polished version. They always help me see the rules or component text that doesn't quite make sense (everything makes perfect sense to the person that wrote it). They provide invaluable feedback on the "fun" factor.

Another rule that I live by is to always credit all playtesters in the rules. last week I playtested an updated version of a card game with some friends that helped me with earlier playtesting. They were thrilled when they opened the rules and saw their names in the credits! Playtesters are your lifeblood, keep them happy!