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How to Playtest like a Boss
It’s time to take your playtest sessions to the next level.
Playtesting is the most important part of the game design process. (Honestly, playtesting is game design.) It’s where you actually get to figure out if your game idea is any good (it’s probably not at first), and it’s where you find out all the many things that don’t work like you want them to. (It’s also sometimes where you find out things work better than you expected which is a pretty great feeling.)
And this guide will have you playtesting like a pro.
Also, if you’re in need of a good playtester feedback form, click HERE to receive the one I use.
Table of Contents
Why Playtesting Is SO Important
Playtesting is incredibly important because, without it, you don’t yet have anything more than an idea. Even a fully formed prototype isn’t yet a game until it’s actually played. A painting can be seen, enjoyed, and critiqued just by looking at it. However, for a game to be anything more than a piece of “art” sitting on a table, someone has to pick up the pieces and start making choices.
Playtesting is the purifying fire that all games must go through in order to become more than just cardstock and components. It’s the process by which all the unnecessary parts get burned away and the true fun of the game rises to the top. It’s how you figure out which game ideas to toss and which ones to pursue. And it’s the process that takes a game from good to great.
A lot of designers will tell you “the gameplay is the thing.” Art, graphic design, packaging, marketing, etc. are all important, but at game night, the main thing that matters is players having a good time. And playtesting is how you end up with an incredible gameplay experience that people will want to enjoy over and over again.
“Build your design process around playtesting. Everything else is theorycraft.”
— Eric Lang
When to Playtest
To put it simply: Now! Immediately! As soon as possible! The sooner you start playtesting, the sooner you start learning more about your game and the sooner you can improve it.
The reason you want to create a minimum viable product as quickly as possible is so that you can do some minimum viable playtesting as quickly as possible. Even if all you have is a scaled-down version of a combat system only consisting of a notecard, some dice, and a few cubes, you can start moving things around the table to see if your idea has any life.
Many designers will tell you to “fail faster.” That’s because your goal should be to get your idea tested quickly so that you can figure out where it fails and then redesign it. The process is basically: test→ fail→ fix→ repeat over and over again until the game is done.
“Playtesting, feedback. Playtesting, feedback. Long pause. Repeat. This will never cease to be the secret to making a great game.”
— Ben Pinchback
How to Playtest
Playing vs Playtesting
The main thing to remember is that there is a tremendous difference between playing a game and playtesting a game. When you playtest, you should go into things like a researcher or a scientist. That means you should be looking for and testing specific things. You should have a hypothesis before you start and see if it’s correct or not. You should be measuring things and tracking changes. Etc.
For example, before a playtest, you might hypothesize that player turns are taking too long which is making the game boring to people as they wait for others. So, you would want to time each player’s turn and take notes about how long each action takes. Maybe combat takes a long time to complete or maybe players take a long time to decide on which actions to take.
Then, after the test, you’ll have data that will help determine what parts of your design need work. If combat was taking three minutes on average to complete, you can work on redesigning how it works so that it’ll average two minutes instead. Or if players were struggling to make choices, you can eliminate some options. Then, you’ll have new things to look for during the next test. Maybe shortening the combat made the game too random. Maybe eliminating options reduced the game’s strategy too much. Whatever the case, look at your game like it’s in a lab and not just on a gaming table.
Keep Track of Everything
Keep track of basically everything you can measure. How long the game took to complete; the final scores; turn order and which player won (1st player advantage happens a lot); winning strategies; etc. What gets measured gets improved, and you’ll be able to see trends over multiple tests.
Does the game tend to have a runaway leader? Do players perform the exact same actions on the first turn every game? Does the game consistently take ninety minutes when you want it to last an hour? Asking questions like these and looking at the actual data will help you greatly improve your game.
And along these same lines, you should write down one to three goals before each playtest. This will help you focus on specific issues with your game and give direction to what you’re looking for and what kind of feedback you’re seeking from testers.
Something like “GOAL: See if the game is too dependent on luck” will help you pay attention to certain aspects of your game and will help you improve the game much faster than if you’re just sitting there watching people play.
I highly recommend using a dedicated journal or digital file for keeping track of the playtest data for each of your games. Jay Cormier’s excellent Fail Faster playtest journal is an amazing resource to easily track playtest information, but just find a system that works well for you that is organized and easy to find.
It’s really frustrating when you pause a design for a year and then can’t find your notes when you have an idea on how to fix the design challenge you ran into.
Problems vs Solutions
While testing, always write down any problems that you notice with the game, and don’t just write down possible solutions. Designers will often write down ideas on how to fix something that don’t turn out to be good solutions, and if they didn’t write down the actual problem, they might have trouble remembering what they were trying to fix in the first place.
For example, if you notice that an auction mechanism is making the game slow down too much, you might write down something like “simplify auction from five options to three.” But if you didn’t write down the actual problem, you might end up redesigning the game in the wrong direction. You might forget that the auction was slowing the game down and instead redesign it assuming the auction’s issue was based on the game’s economy.
“You cannot start a play-testing session without knowing what you are testing. You must know exactly what you are checking that day. What question you are looking to answer.”
— Ignacy Trzewiczek
Who to Playtest With
By Yourself
Most playtesting starts by yourself as you play out various parts of your game to see if things work or not. Honestly, you can do a lot of testing in your head as you play out possible actions and scenarios to figure out which options are available to a player and if they’re fun.
Then, you can move to playing the game against yourself. This is when you take on the role of the different people at the table and try to pretend you don’t know what cards the other “players” are holding.
It’s smart to start with testing the game on yourself so if the game turns out to be a total trainwreck, you haven’t wasted anyone else’s time. When I was first getting started, I asked friends to help me test a design before playing it by myself, and it turned out to be a truly terrible game. After that, those friends were hesitant about helping me test other games.
Friends and Family
After the game works to some degree, friends and family are a great next step to see if the game is any good or not. These are hopefully people who care about you and want you to succeed, so hopefully they’ll be willing to offer up some time to try your game.
They also probably don’t want to hurt your feelings, so you’ll have to take any feedback they give you with a certain degree of skepticism. You’re typically better off watching their body language during the game instead of only listening to their impressions after the game.
Other Game Designers
If you can find other designers to test out your game, you can get some invaluable information on ways to improve it. Game designers see games differently than regular players and might be able to help you fix problems that a typical gamer wouldn’t be able to articulate.
However, take game designer feedback with a certain degree of skepticism as well. Designers have a tendency to…design, and they may end up giving you feedback based on what their vision for the game would be which might be the complete opposite of what you’re going for.
Also, if a game designer playtests your game, be sure to playtest theirs in return. It’s just proper game design etiquette.
Strangers
Once the game works fairly well, it’s time to put it out into the world to stand on its own two feet, and finding strangers or acquaintances to play your game is the best way to get honest feedback.
Game stores, gaming conventions, game design conventions like UnPub and Protospiel, and Facebook groups like the Board Game Design Lab community are all wonderful places to find people to playtest your game.
“Drown your game in passion and play testing. Get hundreds of people to play it, and then listen to their feedback. Specifically, listen to the problems they isolate, but not necessarily their solutions. That’s your job.”
— Marc Neidlinger
Running a Playtest
Practice First
Running a successful playtest is no small task, and there are lots of pitfalls to avoid. So, if you want to get good at it, practice first. Practice your pitch if you’re going to be asking strangers to play at a gaming convention. Practice teaching people how to play. Practice what questions you’ll ask after the game is over. Practice every aspect of the process before actually doing it. The more you run playtests the better you’ll get at it, but it takes a lot of reps.
Pay People for Their Time
Time is a very valuable thing, so make sure your testers know how much you value them and their time. You don’t have to give them money, but at least provide snacks, drinks, dinner, etc. to let them know you care.
If other designers are testing your game, offer to test their games and proofread their rulebooks in return.
Put testers’ names in your rulebook, send them free copies of the game when it comes out, put their names/likenesses on promo cards, etc. Anything that shows you appreciate them will go a long way, and it’ll almost guarantee they playtest your next game.
End the Test Early
And keeping in line with valuing testers’ time, always be quick to end a playtest early. Unless your game is really short, you likely don’t need to test it to completion until it’s further along in the development process. So, once you have enough data on how to improve whatever you’re testing for, shut the test down and ask for feedback. And if the people at the table really want to keep playing, that should tell you a lot about how fun the game is (and if they sigh with relief, that should tell you a lot too).
Before you start a test, tell players that they can ask to end the test at any point. People are often too polite to tell you that they want to stop and will keep playing in spite of having a bad time. Make sure you give them permission to say “I’m done” at any time. You may even want to check in with them regularly to ask if they want to continue.
Basically, don’t waste people’s time, and they’ll be much more likely to help you playtest again and again.
Setup
Never be afraid to stack the deck to test specific aspects of your game. Feel free to organize scenarios that could happen to test game-breaking strategies and combos. Sometimes it’s good to tell testers you’re doing this and get them to help you break the game. For example, “Hey Susan, I’d like to see if a certain strategy is overpowered. Can you aggressively pursue X strategy this game?” Or you might want to set players up without telling them and see how things play out.
Either way, remember you’re a scientist. Setting up tests in search of specific information is part of your job.
And feel free to change the game mid-test. You’re the designer after all. If you think the game should be changed so that players get three actions on a turn instead of two, change it. If you think a card is overpowered, remove it. If a game got off to a bad start, change something and start over.
Receiving Feedback
You Have an Ugly Baby…
No proud parent wants to hear that their baby is ugly. But the truth is that this game you love and have put so much time and effort into…is probably ugly. Or it at least has some pretty ugly parts.
But that’s ok. Every game designer has ugly babies. The good news is that you can drastically improve your baby over time. So, don’t take it personally when someone says your baby has goofy ears and a big nose. Remember that they’re talking about the game, not you. Don’t let your self-worth as a designer get wrapped up in someone’s opinion of a game you’re working on. You are not your game.
Feedback Forms
You may find it helpful to give testers feedback forms to fill out after a playtest. If you do, keep the form short, and don’t expect too much. Personally, I use a simple form to get general data and then ask questions to get into specific details. It’s also not a bad idea to record or film the feedback sessions so you can revisit them later.
You can download the feedback form I use here:
Need a playtester feedback form?
This one is simple, streamlined, and makes collecting playtest data SO much easier.
“I think the hardest part for any designer is letting go. You have to be willing to kill your babies if you want to design effectively.”
— Chris Kirkman
Things to Do
- Take notes. Write down as much as you can. Remember to write down problems, not just solutions.
- Pay attention to body language. This can tell you a lot about how much fun a person is having with your game. But be sure to follow up with asking about it after the game is done. A tester might look miserable but is actually enjoying the game and can’t help that their face looks like that when they’re thinking, haha.
- Ask for feedback. You’ll be able to learn most of what you need to know about your game while people are actually playing it. However, it can be incredibly valuable to ask about testers’ experiences with the game when it’s over. Try to get to the heart of why someone likes or doesn’t like a part of your game, and feel free to ask them why they chose a particular action during play. Maybe it’s a strategy they were going for or maybe it’s because they didn’t understand the rules.
- Listen to the feedback. Remember that listening isn’t just waiting on your turn to talk. Take in what testers are saying. Ask follow up questions to get more specific.
- Assess the feedback. Does a tester love your game because they love all sci-fi themed games? Does a tester hate your game because they hate all sci-fi themed games? There are always deeper issues at play. Maybe they had a bad experience because it’s 2 AM, and they’re exhausted, not because the game is bad. Assess context and personal biases before taking in both praise and criticism.
- Ignore the feedback. Playtesters are typically really good at telling you what doesn’t work and typically pretty terrible at knowing why it doesn’t work. You’ll likely receive all sorts of advice on how to fix a problem, and feel free to ignore all of it. (Listen to it and assess it first, of course.)
Things Not to Do
- Don’t argue. It’s easy for a feedback discussion to turn into an argument, but please realize it’s a giant waste of time. Also, no one was ever argued into liking a game, and getting upset with a tester will likely lead to them not wanting to help you test another game in the future.
- Don’t take anything personally. They’re criticizing the game, not you as a person. Again, think like a scientist. Separate yourself from the test. (Unless they’re actually criticizing you personally. In that case…)
- Don’t subject yourself to abuse. If someone crosses a line with you or someone else at the table, don’t escalate the situation, but call it out. If you need to thank people for their time, wrap things up, and go home, feel free. If you need to ask someone to leave, feel free. Don’t sacrifice your mental health for the sake of a playtest.
- Don’t be a bad host. As mentioned before, bring snacks. Be grateful. Reciprocate. Value people’s time.
- Don’t be afraid to ask. Creative people tend to struggle with self-promotion, but don’t be afraid to ask people to test your game. I know it can be scary, but it’s the only way to make a great game.
“Playtesters enjoying the game doesn’t imply there is nothing to change, and vice versa.”
— John Brieger
Creating the Next Version of Your Game
After a playtest, it’s important to iterate on your design and get its next version to the table as soon as possible. This will keep you from forgetting vital feedback, and it will help maintain your momentum.
Sometimes, after a playtest, you might want to let your thoughts simmer for a while as you parse through the data and try to figure out what to do. However, your goal should be to turn feedback and data into progress as soon as possible.
How Many Playtests?
There are lots of different thoughts on how many times you should playtest your game. Some designers have a specific number in mind and think a game should be tested 100 times, for example. Other designers think you should playtest a game until you’re not making any changes to it between tests and then test it twenty more times.
But the truth is that there is no magic number, and it completely depends on the game. A heavy, Euro game will likely need a lot more testing than a twenty-minute party game. So, the real answer is “enough.”
You can design, test, and redesign a game indefintely, and many designers will tell you that a game is never truly “done.” However, you’ll likely have a pretty good gut feeling when you know a game has been tested enough.
And if you’re not sure, let your playtesters be the judge. If they’re having a hard time coming up with issues or if they’re asking you to play the game as opposed to you asking them, those should be pretty good indicators that your game is near completion.
“Don’t be afraid to change any of what you consider to be a core mechanic, because if it’s not working then it can’t be a core mechanic.”
— Richard Launius
Blind Playtesting
Blind playtesting is when people play your game without any feedback or explanation from you. Maybe you’re in the room, maybe you’re not, but either way, testers are setting up, learning the game, and playing it just like they would a published game. And you’re taking notes on how everything plays out and keeping your mouth shut when they get the rules wrong.
Typically, blind playtesting happens towards the end of a game’s development process, but some designers jump into it early and often. (There’s no wrong answer.)
This type of testing gives you the absolute best window into how good your game is, and it’ll reveal problems with everything from gameplay to the rulebook to graphic design.It’s an extraordinarily important part of the overall playtesting process that will show you your game’s true colors as it simulates what would happen if someone bought your game and brought it to game night.
It can also be rather painful to watch, especially when people completely butcher how the game is supposed to be played, so be prepared to bite your tongue and take copious notes.
Some designers prefer to be in the room near the testers but at a different table. Some designers send their games to testers who film themselves playing the game, and then the designer watches the video to see how things went. Just do what works for you.
Blind Test the Rulebook
One of my favorite things to do is blind test just the rulebook and game setup. I’ll hand the prototype to someone who has never played it before and say, “Teach me how to play.” Then, they’ll open the box, take out the rules, and start setting up the game and telling me how it works.
While they’re doing this, I’m writing down anything they get wrong or struggle to understand. I don’t say anything, and I don’t correct any mistakes. I just write. This provides incredible information about the clarity of my setup instructions and rulebook overall, and it’s led to being able to drastically improve my games.
I’ll also test the rulebook with different types of gamers. I’ll give it to someone who doesn’t play games deeper than Uno and Monopoly, and I’ll give it to someone who loves super complicated games. Testing the rulebook (and the game in general) with different types of gamers will provide a ton of insight on what needs to be explained more clearly.
“Playtest with as many different groups of people as you can – from diverse backgrounds – and really carefully observe and listen to them to evaluate your game as you iterate.”
— Matt Leacock
Playtesting Games Online
We live in exciting times when it’s possible to create a digital version of your game and then playtest it with people on the other side of the world. Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia are the best two programs to check out, and while both have a bit of a learning curve, they’re both fairly simple to understand and navigate.
To learn more about the two systems, I recommend checking out these two podcast episodes that I recorded a while back.
And you can find a series of how-to videos for Tabletop Simulator HERE.
Testing and Community Building
Playtesting is about more than just testing and improving your game. It’s also about building up a community of fans around your game. This is especially important if/when the game hits the marketplace. Having a bunch of people who have played the game and can then talk about it online can pay huge dividends in your marketing efforts.
So, make sure you ask for testers’ email addresses, and invite them to your game’s Facebook group. For one thing, this will make it easier to thank them for testing your game, and for another, it’ll give you opportunities to turn them into customers and raving fans of your game down the road.
For some great advice on setting up an online group for your game, check out this podcast.
Need a playtester feedback form?
This one is simple, streamlined, and makes collecting playtest data SO much easier.
You're Going to Have Bad Playtest Sessions
Every designer I’ve ever talked to has experienced terrible playtest sessions. It just comes with the territory. So, when it happens to you, shrug it off and move on to the next one. “Play the next play” as my old football coach used to say.
More Resources
For a TON more resources and information about playtesting, be sure to visit the playtesting section of the site.
“Your playtesters’ minor irritants of today are your reviewers’ slams of tomorrow.”
— John Brieger
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