Playtesting: A Strange and Necessary Practice

Nathan Gugel
Serious Games: 377G
2 min readMay 23, 2019

Designing a game is a very strange process.

Perhaps it is design itself that is strange. When designing a game specifically, you weave together wit, logic, and novelty into an experience-giving environment. Crafting what that experience will be is the hard part. Any amount of effort and planning and insightful understanding of human nature does not eliminate the possibility of your game being a total and utter failure, at least temporarily. I am referring to playtesting, the process by which a game designer tests some aspect of their game’s quality, coherence, and/or enjoyability by having players play the game, noting what the player needs and what the player wants in order to make the game as well-implemented as possible.

Playtesting is a very vulnerable process. The shear effort of creation often forges attachment to its result, sometimes making it difficult to place a game before players with the intention find its flaws. However, should a designer playtest vigorously, the quality of the game will almost certainly improve. Even if the game remains largely the same, it is still important to validate its quality before distributing the game as “finished.”

There are many types of playtesting, each of which has its own uses. “Bug testing” involves ensuring that there are no technical issues with the game involving its core functionality. “Focus testing” works with playtesters in the target demographic. “Usability testing” focuses on a player’s ability to understand and complete various tasks within the game. “Balance testing” finds whether the asymmetries of the game work together to make a game with meaningful choices as opposed to a single easily determined path to victory. Finally “fun testing” tests for the games enjoyability (a factor distinct from a technically perfect game).

Playtesting with just anyone, however, will not always yield meaningful results. Playtesting with designers is different than playtesting with family. Playtesting with random strangers is different than playtesting with hardcore gamers. Each type of playtester has value, but at different times and to answer different questions about your game. It is also important to change out your playtesters to ensure the game is tested on its current state. Players that have played your game before may inherently understand some aspect of it in future playthroughs. This can hide what may still a confusing aspect to new players (as your audience will likely be upon distribution). A designer should work with playtesters in reverse order of familiarity, beginning with themself. After doing as much as possible alone, bring in family and friends, acquaintances and co-workers, hardcore gamers and strangers in your target demographic in that rough order. As the game develops, more critical and less biased testing is required to ensure it is at its absolute best.

This article is inspired by this blog post: https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/level-12-solo-testing/

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