Week 9: Readings

GDW Chapter 9: Playtesting (pages 271—304)

This chapter is about the importance of playtesting and how to conduct an effective playtesting. Playtests should be done often, with a specific question to find out each time. Playtesters are the main component in order to construct a playtest. In the initial stages of the game, it is alright for the designers to become the playtesters themselves, in order to make sure that the basic of the game works. In my opinion, this is the easiest type of playtest since I do not have to recruit anyone, but it could also takes the longest since the initial stages of the game are usually full of bugs and loopholes that needed to be addressed. After that, playtests can be conducted will playtesters. They can be people the desginers already know, or strangers. It should be noted that the feedbacks from friends and families may be less objective than the ones from strangers. Personally, I find playtesting with people I don't know to be more effective in getting feedbacks about the game feel and the mechanic, and whether or not the game is fun. This is because they are objective and arr solely focused on the game with no other influeneces. On the other hand, I find that playtesters that are friends tend to give constructive feedbacks, as well as suggestions, regarding the art and the aesthtic of the game. This may be because they are more used to and have a deeper understanding of my own aesthetic.

It is advised that the designers should give a minimum explanation to the playtesters before conducting the playtest, so that they can have a genuine reactions and first impressions of the game. In addition, the playtesters should think out loud, reacting and describing verbally what's their thoughts are while playing the game. I find that the playtesters who are at the public playtest sessions immediately know that they should verbalize their reactions. I think that these events are especially useful since I cant conduct many effective playtests within a cerrtain amount of time. As a result, the designers can take notes of the reactions, as well as conducting and interview sessions after the gameplay. The main part about the interview is to find out what the playtesters didn't like or felt that it was confusing, since these feedbacks can help to further improve the game and help the designers see the problems that they might have been too subjective to notice before. Usually, I conduct a face to face interview or a group discussion with the playtesters after the playtest since I think that the conversations can be expanded into a very detailed one. However, the method of having a feedback forms where the playtester fill out, which was mentioned in the chapter, can also be useful in covering the topics that may have been forgotten in the verbal discussion as well.