Process

Playtest

You might say: put it in front of players

A playtest puts a playable prototype or build in front of target players to see whether the intended experience is actually happening.

What it does

Supplies evidence about actual dynamics rather than imagined behaviour.

Ask

What can players do without our explanation, and where do they diverge?

Parts

• Playtest session: A playtest session is a planned test of a specific question with a chosen build, participants and protocol.

Sources

1. Tracy Fullerton, Playcentric Design (ACM interactions, 2008), Playcentric Design, pp. 42–47: player tests, feedback and iterationCalled ‘playcentric’ design, it involves setting interesting player-experience goals, building a rough paper or digital prototype that attempts to achieve those goals, testing the prototype with players, evaluating the results and integrating feedback, and then doing it again.
2. Celia Hodent, How We Introduced UX to Epic Games’ Production Pipeline (GDC16), slides 2–7, 31 and 45: prototyping, playtesting and early testingIt begins when the team specifies their hypotheses for the next online test. … We determine what questions need to be answered … the UX team prepares accordingly an experimental protocol. … Sometimes we test the live build that has just been pushed in long sessions, but we also do shorter and quick-and-dirty tests with prototypes
3. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, Introduction pp. xi–xiii; ch. 1 pp. 1–22; ch. 8 listed in contents p. ixGame Mechanics will show you how to design, test, and tune the core mechanics of a game
4. Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei and Lennart E. Nacke, Games User Research, ch. 1 pp. 1–8; ch. 2 pp. 15–29A default test can be divided into four steps: preparation, execution, analysis, and reporting.
5. Celia Hodent, How We Introduced UX to Epic Games’ Production Pipeline (GDC16), Prod31–40 processSometimes we test the live build that has just been pushed in long sessions, but we also do shorter and quick-and-dirty tests with prototypes (on paper, interactive prototypes, and even sometimes directly in the editor).
6. Steve Swink, Game Feel: The Secret Ingredient, The Garden’s Ecosystem; Context; Ruleswatch a bunch of people play the game
7. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, The Process of Play; Feedback Loops; HomeplayHow do you know if your change worked? Playtest, of course!
8. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, Eclipse Colony design case study: behavior observed in playtestseven this could still change as the game gets tested more.

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