Playtest

Quote from "Donʼt follow these rules! A Primer for Playtesting" by Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman, "Playtesting is a methodology borrowed from the game design where unfinished projects are tested on an audience.". As they said, playtest is an experimental process for creative design that required players to give feedback on the developing project. In this way, designers can fix problems and improve by collaborating with players.

Playtesting is not only useful as a test for game design. As we discussed, it is an experiment that can be useful on other creative projects too since the main idea of playtesting is to gain feedback from the audiences. Thus, although many of the methods and concepts come from game design, they can also be useful in other fields.

## **Rules for Playtest**

In "Donʼt follow these rules! A Primer for Playtesting", authors set up some rules for before, during and after a play test.

## Before a Playtest...

### **Playtest before you think you are ready**

Playtesting is applied for progressing projects, which means we are not testing for finished work. An earlier playtest can help the designer see the weakness in the core of the project, which means testing early on allows time to change the game's core more freely. Playtesting is not an official presentation, so you better test your project before you are ready.

*"Is it too early for you to playtest? If the answer is yes, then playtest anyway."*

### **Strategize for early playtesting**

Make sure you have a working prototype in the early stage. And make a good plan on playtesting, such as scale or time. It is important to only focus on the part you want to test rather than the whole project.

*“Simplify your project so that you can playtest today.”*

### **Know why you are playtesting**

Having a complete plan before testing, with clear goals and questions, will make your testing faster and more effective. Playtesting brings questions that you did not considered, but you should still have a clear image about the playtest.

*“What is the one key question that you want your playtest to answer?”*

## During a playtest...

### **Be selfish**

Play-testing aims to show an unfinished project that your playtester can give reasonable suggestions for improvement. Do not focus on making playtesters feel fun or making them satisfied with your work, because you want true opinions.

*"Donʼt worry about being entertaining."*

### **Notice everything**

Notice everything that your playtester's reaction when playing your game, such as emotional changes, the time of the game, and other details of your playtest.

*“Are you noticing everything – or just what you want to see?”*

## After a playtest...

### **Discuss what happened**

Have a conversation after a playtest with your playtesters, focus on their experience about the game. Your question can be related to your note about their reaction to a certain part, asking them about what they like or dislike about your game, or what they would like to add or change.

*"The more concrete your questions, the more useful answers you will get."*

### **Put feedback into context**

Your playtesters are only giving opinions worthy of consideration, not guidelines for your next step. It is important to remember don't follow any advice blindly. Sometimes these suggestions only represent the feelings of the playtester and cannot be used as a solution because they will not be any more professional than you are.

*“Ask for feedback, but donʼt take suggestions literally.”*

## Reference

https://canvascloud.ocadu.ca/courses/1320/files/462378?module\_item\_id=98401