Watching someone play your game
You know how your game works. A player doesn't. The only way to find out what your game is really like is to watch someone play it without helping. That's a playtest.
The rules
- The tester plays for three minutes. They think out loud.
- The maker watches and writes. Hands behind your back. You may not explain, point, or sigh.
- After three minutes the tester writes feedback. Then swap.
1. Test
Use the sheet. Every minute, write what the tester did and what they said. Not what they should have done.
2. Write feedback
Three lines for the maker:
- One thing you'd keep.
- One place you got stuck (what you did, what you expected).
- One question ("Did you mean for the door to open from both sides?").
3. Sort it
Read your feedback. Put each line in a pile:
- Fix now: it stopped the tester playing.
- Fix later: it would make the game better, but they could keep going.
- Leave it: it's taste, and you disagree.
Post your "fix now" item on your game's card on the class board (or the sheet).
4. Fix one thing
Fix the "now" item. Tick it off. If there's time, get the same tester to try again.
Done when
- You have a filled-in sheet for the game you tested.
- You sorted the feedback you got.
- You changed one thing and can say which observation led to it.