Well, that is a broad question, and really depends on the circumstance. I would say way more than you think. I know we have tested all of our designs well over 100 times each.
100 times, where do you find all that time?
Making a good game is about finding the time. Not all those playtests are full run-throughs of the game, if something is obviously broken we stop the test and talk about what we experienced. And ways to improve on the design. Even with "bad" versions of the game, there is always some good, so I ask people their favorite part. That is one of my favorite questions because it is usually easier for someone to give you positive feedback than negative feedback. This starts the feedback discussion. Then I can go into, "what was your least favorite part?" and "if you could make one change, what would it be?" These are early playtests questions typically, but I use them all throughout the process as it still breaks the ice, even with a late stage prototype. During a late stage play test you may get the same feedback over and over and realize something needs to be addressed.
You didn't answer the question. 100 times? Really?
Yes. It is crucial to get a lot of playtests on a design. There are different stages of play testing though, and not all the playtests are with other people. It also depends on the level of complexity of your game. Smaller simpler games will need less play testing to be sure you have it right. Although those are the fastest to playtest normally, so you could easily still get a lot of playtests in.
Also, if you have been designing for a long time you may be able to get away with fewer playtests. Although I think this is a bit of a copout too, as we have all seen bad designs from well known designers.
You can probably tell from this discussion that I am a big fan of getting your design right the first time. Some people take the "throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks" approach, but we like to invest a lot of time in each design. We want to work the kinks out before the general public gets to see it. Even when we get it where we want it, we work with our publishers to streamline and balance it more. For each change we try to get at least one play test in for each of us (Mike and myself) so we can discuss our thoughts.
You mentioned different stages of play testing. What do you mean?
We start by keeping the game in house for a while. Doing a lot of solo play testing, controlling 2 or 3 characters each if need be. When we feel we actually have a game, we will get together and play it ourselves a few times and tweak it. More solo play tests if necessary until we feel it is ready for your close knit gaming groups. This is key, you don't want to put a lot of crap in front of them or they won't want to play any more of your designs. Some groups that are extra sensitive to aesthetics. We won't even put it in front of them until it is almost done. That is ok, you just have to feel out your groups and see how they respond. If you feedback is all about the graphic design and art, this isn't a good group for early play tests.
After we have played it ourselves and feel it is good, we will bring it to our closest friends and family. That way if things go horribly wrong we can just stop and play something else. Usually I will just play a few turns with my wife to start. This will give me a chance to teach the rules (usually you will find some flaws right here) and see how easy the game is to understand for someone who hasn't been working on it.
If it passes the family test I will usually try to get it to a convention next. Unpub conventions are the best (the Kickstarter for Unpub 5 is starting today July 7th at noon, make sure you sign up), but any convention you can convince strangers to play a prototype will work. Sometimes just setting it up on a table next to you while you play something else will draw people over (please don't do this if there is limited gaming space at your convention and people are looking for tables).
Meanwhile, during all these other steps we are continuing to playtest solo and tweak. We talk at least 3-4 times a week, usually much more, when we are at this stage of development. It is also key to start working on the rules if you haven't done so already. You will need them for the next step of play testing which is the blind playtest. This is where you give the game to people who haven't played it before with only the rules to learn it from. It is great if you can be there to observe and see what they are getting wrong. Try not to intervene unless you know the answer to their question isn't in the rules. If that is the case, take notes and fix the rules. Make them look up rules they can't remember so you see how long it takes them to find it. Make sure to emphasize rules that are forgotten, or missed during these sessions.
After all this is done we start looking for publishers who may be interested in our type of games. The play testing doesn't stop here though, we are constantly tweaking the games to try and make them better. If we have sent a prototype to a publisher, we try not to make any tweaks to that game until we get feedback from them. You don't want to be playing a different game than they are. Once we get their feedback we go into development mode again and work to correct things. Then more play tests. At this point we are doing all types: solo, together (just the two of us), family, game groups, conventions, etc.
Can you summarize those stages again?
These stages build on each other. We start with solo and keep adding as we go down. None ever go away though and we will be solo testing all throughout the design.
- Solo
- With a close friend (lead play tester, co-designer)
- Family and YOUR Game Group
- Conventions
- Blind Play Tests
- Publisher
Anything else?
There is a lot more to cover, but that will be it for this week. We will hit the subject again in the future. Don't forget to sign up for Unpub 5 on Kickstarter. This is an unsolicited endorsement. As always your feedback is appreciated.
That is it for this week. Next week we are going to cover board layout and prototyping. Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.
No comments:
Post a Comment