I can't sleep, I'll post the pop culture and games post next week, and I wanna write about what happens in my head when I listen to a playtester and how they can help me.
What I do:
0. Remove debugs and turn on the music and turn off pandora. I don't care if you are Stravinsky, Brian Eno, Trent Reznor, or Gustavo Santaolalla; I need to turn off your music so I don't get desensitized to it. If I really like a song, I make a point to not over listen to it.
1. I tell you nothing beyond "play my game". If you desperately seek a response I will give you terse non-answers. If you ask me how to play I will say I iterated so many times I forgot what the rules were. Sometimes I may ask you to teach me how to play as you read my rules.
2. I take notes as you playing; notably on what you missed, how long it took for you to get something, and what made you squeeze or react. I'm especially looking for your feelings and responses to events.
3. Bugs. I will tell you if something is broken or if you found a bug playtest.I'll note it. If you are hopelessly lost or there is a clear breakdown in my games ability to communicate info; I will tell you and note it as a bug.
4. First thing after you play, 'what's your feel?' Do you like it do you want more? Is it interesting? In my head I'm looking for your reaction to the core experience I delivered.
5. After you play I note what moments you remember. These are often points of contrast (highs and lows) on an engagement curve. Really you should only remember highs; if you remember lows I probably had it linger too long.
6. Finally after play I listen to your suggestions. Most likely you are right about what things are wrong and your suggestions about how to fix them are incorrect (your exposure and knowledge of the game is based on the level you played, my time with this game is orders of magnitude greater).
How you can help:
0. BYOH bring your own headphones. Dumb stuff I know; but you really want to use the ones that every other playtester used? Some of them are freshman and those things aren't always clean.
1. Tell me if you have played before. You are a very different playtester if you have played before or one that has not. This helps me understand your frame of reference to the experience and what you know coming in.
2. Hold your comments till the end, don't feel the need to narrate or try to analyze as you go. If you want to change anything about how you play, just actually say things you would mutter to yourself. This helps me see what you remember about the game. Also say 'eww' when the ui sucks, we need to know.
3. Try to have the core experience; don't just play to break my game. If you do find breaking bugs in my game, that's good; my point is don't change how you play to break my game. Just play. I will test for things to be unbreakable later. This helps me make sure I'm leading you and informing you properly and delivering my core experience.
4. Tell me if this is your kinda game. If you are hard core into platformers and that's what I'm making tell me about it. This also helps me gauge difficulty.
4.5 If this is your type of game suggest similar games for me to play. It's actually very helpful for me to see what conclusions other designers came up with to similar problems.
5. Honestly articulate what you like and dislike. If you hate the game overall that's fine, but do say more than "hated it". This helps me identify what kinda games you like and what sort of player you are.
5.5 Don't take it personally if the game does something that offends you. I'm testing it with you because I know you might be sensitive to the game I need to know if I crossed the line. I'm never trying to offend others but that means I must playtest the game with those who may be offended.
6. Feel free to play again and narrate after you've had your initial impressions. Narration is useful but it does change the experience. This helps me understand you primary experience next to what you see on deeper analysis.
7. Fill out my form; its annoying, I know but it gives me some concrete data. This helps me track changes over different builds with numbers and data. It also let's me yell at programmers with numbers which means they will actually make the changes I suggest.
8. Tell your friends, but no spoilers. Chances are nobody is going to hear about my indie game. Even if its a triple-a experience I can still miss sales projections if I only sell two million copies. Tweet what you like about it or who you think its for or that you at least got to see an early version of it. Obviously I am never asking you to break NDA but this helps me get my work seen and played. It also makes it easier for me to find more playtesters.
9. Give me your card/ contact info. This helps me contact you for additional playtests. I may not get back to you till my next project which could be several months time; but you may be just the playtester I need.
10. Remember, the worse the game is that I'm making you play; the more I trust you. It's scary to put your hard work out there when you know it has problems and needs iterations. I'm scared you will think I'm bad at making games, or a one hit wonder, or I'm not legit or real; but I put aside these insecurities, suck it up and put my game out there because I know it will make it better. Doing this helps me do my number one job, advocate for the player. It also helps me learn to not live my life out of fear, but out of passion; which helps me be free.
