Level 11 Introduction & Readings

LEVEL 11: TESTING

As with many things in life and in game design, you could sit here forever contemplating which is the best choice… but at some point you’ll need to start working towards your goal. Choose a direction and go with it, even if it might not be the best one. Trust that you will be able to use the iterative process to fix any mistakes you make along the way.

In Level 11 discusses the general concept of playtesting. There are many different kinds of playtesting and it is important to be able to differentiate between them in order to get maximum value from our time. As the designer, it is an important skill to be able to playtest your own creations (which you’ve already done at least once). It is also important to be able to set up conditions for other people to playtest your games, so that you can get useful information from the precious time you have (which we will cover over the next week).

Playtesting with gamers is very different from playing with other game designers. Done right, the feedback you can get from players in your target audience is even more meaningful than getting feedback from game designers, because you are seeing firsthand how your game will be experienced by the very kinds of people who will eventually be playing the final version. However, it is a very different skill. Non-designer playtesters will give a different kind of feedback, and it takes a bit more effort to find the root cause of problems that are identified. You have to be much more observant. When your game is playtested without you (or another of the game’s designers) being personally present to observe, it is called blindtesting.

LEVEL 11 Readings

  • Challenges for Game Designers, Chapter 11 (Targeting a Market).
    We have discussed the importance designing for the player (as opposed to the designer) earlier in this course. This chapter goes into more detail, giving some considerations when designing a game for target-demographic or mass-market appeal.

  • Giving Criticism – the good, the bad, and the ugly! Links to an external site.”
    This may not be a class on giving constructive criticism, but it is something I’m going to ask everyone to be doing. Far too often in classes, students are asked to give peer feedback and review, and yet not given the tools to do so in a useful way. I think many teachers either take the stance that simply giving feedback enough times will make people better at it (“practice makes perfect”) or else that feedback techniques should be taught in some other class (“I can’t waste precious class time on that”). This article may not be particularly comprehensive, but it is short, and after doing a Google search for “constructive criticism” it is the one that I found that fits best with the advice I give in my classes.

  • Extra Credits S3 E21 Playtesting
    Extra Credits covers the basics of playtesting.

  • Extra Credits S3 E 7 Pacing
    Extra Credits discuses rising tensions.  Make sure that your game has overall uptrend in tension.

 

Additional Resources

For additional readings on these topics, click HERE. It is a list of resources that is student generated and regularly updated.