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Playtesting advice

18 replies [Last post]
Mon, 08/11/2008 - 13:02
FunkyBlue
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Joined: 08/11/2008

I was sent over here from Board Game Geek and I want to repost my topic over here, as well:

I figure this would be a good place to post this. I work for the Xenia, Ohio school district. At our high school, we have a club that we've put together for board/card/video games with an average of 30-40 kids and 2-4 staff and meet twice a week during the school year. Some of our kids have starting modding games and even trying to create their own lately. I'd really like to foster that ambition in any way I can.

What I'm laying out in front of all of the developers that frequent this forum is that I believe we have a great test bed for new games. They play anything I bring to the tables and they've been some of the best rules lawyers I've known. They know how to find holes in the rules and even with games I've played for years, I've had to dredge out the rulebook to look up something. As for the kids making the games, I've always thought that playtesting would be a great experience for them so they can see how a game gets revised and how it shapes into the final product.

Our main problem getting this going has been a brick wall to all the inquiries I've made over the last year. I do miss the great Randy Pausch, but his sage-like advice that bricks walls are there to show how badly you want something is completely true. So, I come to you all here and ask that if you have a game in production and would like a large group to playtest it, let me know. If you know of someone who would be willing to let us playtest a game, let me know.

Here's our statistics:

Students - Ages 14-18
Staff - Ages 31-46
Most popular games played - CCGs (MTG, Pokemon), RPGs (D20, D&D, Serenity), Minitures (WH40K, War Machine), Board (Catan, Colosseum, and Manila are the current favorites), Card (Illuminati, Nuclear War)

Thanks in advance to all that reply!

Original thread:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2545100#2545100

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Mon, 08/11/2008 - 13:35
#1
seo
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Joined: 07/21/2008
You've come to the right place

I'm sure you'll get lots of designers interested here. Finding playtesters is one of the hardest tasks for most game designers, so your offer is as good as giving out cash form many of us.

I think a publisher-like approach will work best for you: we send you a brief description/rulebook of the games we would like you to playtest, and you ask for the ones that sound interesting enough.

Seo
PS: I'll send you a PM with specific info about a couple games I might like to send you.

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Tue, 08/12/2008 - 18:24
#2
FunkyBlue
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Joined: 08/11/2008
Playtesting advice

That sounds great!

We'd appreciate it!

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Tue, 08/12/2008 - 19:20
#3
nomadsgames
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Joined: 07/27/2008
Play Testing

Hello FunkyBlue,

I am a member of a Salt Lake City, Utah based game designer group ( Board Game Designers Guild ). The group mainly designs euro type/theme boardgames. I will be more than happy to tell the group's designers about your offer.

If You would like to contact Board Game Designers Guild, You may find our group at www.gamenightgame.com

Best Regards
nomadsgames

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Tue, 08/12/2008 - 21:39
#4
FunkyBlue
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BGDG - SLC, UT

nomadsgames wrote:
Hello FunkyBlue,

I am a member of a Salt Lake City, Utah based game designer group ( Board Game Designers Guild ). The group mainly designs euro type/theme boardgames. I will be more than happy to tell the group's designers about your offer.

If You would like to contact Board Game Designers Guild, You may find our group at www.gamenightgames.com

Best Regards
nomadsgames

Please do! The kids have really grasped onto the eurostyle games.

I was telling someone else that you can almost see the lightbulb above their heads after that first game of Catan and they realize there's more games out there than Risk and M:TG. A lot of them haven't played a game that wasn't on the shelf at Wal-Mart, but by the end of their first year, they're fighting over the last spot on Colosseum and Manila.

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Mon, 02/16/2009 - 17:34
#5
rtwombly
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Joined: 01/17/2009
deserves a bump

I'm messaging you the details (which may or may not work out), but an offer this generous is worth bumping. Huzzah!

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Tue, 02/17/2009 - 07:15
#6
Willi B
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Joined: 07/28/2008
Thanks sooooo much for the

Thanks sooooo much for the bumpage.... this must have eluded me during the GenCon rush last year.... these people are within 30 miles of me and hopefully will be sending a couple of designs their way shortly.

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Tue, 02/17/2009 - 19:57
#7
brisingre
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Joined: 01/21/2009
I'd be interested

I'll be sending a prototype your way soonish, I hope.

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Wed, 02/18/2009 - 14:03
#8
FunkyBlue
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Joined: 08/11/2008
You know, I was just saying

You know, I was just saying to the other admin of the group that we had hit a slow time and we haven't had much to playtest over the last couple of months and then I had one from the UK, Willi B, and couple others within a single week! We're basically playing through what we get in the order we get it. We're willing to play anything you all want to send us.

I will warn that we can be brutally honest. We've found some designers are appreciative while others have been... I'll just say less so. I simply encourage the kids to discuss what they thought could be different and they start off with all the "If you could do this..." or "This was too easy, it needs some way to knock someone down the board..."

It's been a lot of fun and I'd like to keep it going as long as we can!

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Wed, 02/18/2009 - 18:45
#9
JuggernautJ
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Joined: 02/14/2009
Thank You!

Hey,
I'd like to take just a moment to say how cool I think it is that you've made the time for these kids and that you've chosen a great hobby with which to keep them interested!
A Looooooong time ago (OK, 1976) I joined my High School Board Game Club. The countless hours of fun and growth are still remembered fondly to this day.
33 years later, I still have a friend from that club... and we still play boardgames (sometimes even the same games...).
I hope your kids get as much out of it as I did. If so, it will be a positive and formative experience that they will always cherish.

Thanks,

J.

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Wed, 02/18/2009 - 23:50
#10
FunkyBlue
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Joined: 08/11/2008
There used to be one admin

There used to be one admin before I came to the district. The euros were pretty sparse, but Kevin (the other guy) had them playing games like BloodBowl and some other miniatures games as well as some of the more common party games. Then I brought in a copy of Settlers when I first bought my copy. It was an instant hit and within a couple weeks, the club bought a set so we could have two tables running at the same time. After that, my euro collection expanded and I brought them in whenever I had something new and I never had a shortage of players. And that's pretty much how it's been since.

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Thu, 02/19/2009 - 00:47
#11
apeloverage
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Joined: 08/01/2008
given the large number of people

who come on here wanting someone to playtest their game, perhaps Funkyblue's contact details could be put permanently on the site?

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Fri, 04/03/2009 - 07:55
#12
Michael C
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Joined: 02/20/2009
Need new blood?

Hey FunkyBlue,
Are you still running your playtest groups?
I have a couple of prototpes which I'd like to get blind tested by people who don't know me.
Perhaps you could drop me a line and let me know whether you are still active.
Best,
M<

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Fri, 04/03/2009 - 08:05
#13
Michael C
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Joined: 02/20/2009
JuggernautJ wrote:Hey, I'd

JuggernautJ wrote:
Hey,
I'd like to take just a moment to say how cool I think it is that you've made the time for these kids and that you've chosen a great hobby with which to keep them interested!
A Looooooong time ago (OK, 1976) I joined my High School Board Game Club. The countless hours of fun and growth are still remembered fondly to this day.
33 years later, I still have a friend from that club... and we still play boardgames (sometimes even the same games...).
I hope your kids get as much out of it as I did. If so, it will be a positive and formative experience that they will always cherish.

Thanks,

J.

Me too.
When I was at Sixth Form, I quit golf lessons to help set up a games club with a guy I was introduced to who was also into boardgames. 24 years later, we have been best man at each other's weddings, my wife & I regularly take games round to play with his wife and kids, and he's now helping me playtest my first serious attempts to get a game published.
You never set out to make lifelong friends when you sit down at a gameboard, but there's something about that shared interest that will keep your students in touch with one another long after most people have drifted far apart.
M<

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Fri, 04/03/2009 - 17:25
#14
Meldrum
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Joined: 10/29/2008
I have a game for you to playtest.

Hey Funky Blue,

I have recently developed a game (The Market at Kos) that has undergone some playtesting, but I am looking for some more. My game is listed on boardgamegeek but you can also get the whole file from the following site:

http://sites.google.com/site/themarketatkos/

The game file contains the rules, and all of the game components. You will have to cut out the pieces and attach some of them to pennies for ease of use. If you do try out my game let me know what you think. It has only been playtested with 4 players so I am interested in seeing how it works with the other player variants. I am in the midst of updating the rulebook, but ask me if you need any clarification (Action 4 just means you get 1 point, you don't actually have goods or set them out in the market).

Meldrum.

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Sat, 04/04/2009 - 11:47
#15
FunkyBlue
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Joined: 08/11/2008
We'll give it a shot!

We'll give it a shot!

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Sun, 04/05/2009 - 01:22
#16
mjacobsca
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Joined: 04/05/2009
Playtest My Game?

Mr. FunkyBlue,

I'd like to take you up on your offer and see if you and the kids would be willing to playtest my game, "Kumba". The two line summary of my game:

Kumba is a euro-dice-fest where the players are trying to build a theme park. Players have to roll dice, allocate them in budget slots, and then spend them. They build rides, manage maintenance, research, and advertising budgets, and earn income from customers. The winner is the player that has built the best park at the end of 2 years (or earlier, in some circumstances).

If you want to look over my rules, you can download them from:

http://thejacobsfamilyhomepage.com/KumbaRules.pdf

Let me know if you are interested, and I can send you files to print. You'd basically have to print about 35 pages of paper, and get together a LOT of dice.

Michael

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Thu, 06/25/2009 - 18:36
#17
conflictuniverse
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Joined: 06/23/2009
simple game to test

Good day FunkyBlue,

I have a simple game prototype that is ready for some serious blind play testing.

It's aimed at 12 to adult and the instruction booklet is only 2 pages long. The setup time is a minute or two and is a team based game for 4 to 10 players.

If your interested in knowing more, please let me know.
Thanks
Gary

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Fri, 06/26/2009 - 07:45
#18
mads b
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Joined: 08/06/2008
testing

Hi,
I haven't seen your post before, but the offer sounds great. I have two designs that could really use some extra testing. One is a solo first person shooter and the other a euro-ish card game with a pasted on theme about being gods who have to smite their followers.

Both games are rather ugly, but easy to print and play. And if you want to take the effort of actually printing and playing them with your group of brutally honest testers I'll be delighted. And should you have any expenses (card sleeves, card board printing or something) we can maybe arrange something through PayPal.

So let me know if you're interested and I'll post some links for you.

mads

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