1. P LAYTESTING Ağacan Süleymanoğlu

2. O UTLINE Overview Finding the Right Testers When to Test How to Test Guided and Unguided Testing Balancing The Artistic Vision 2/19

3. O VERVIEW Playtesting is not just a minor stepping-stone. Instead, playtesting is a key time during which you can transform your game from average to excellent. This is not the same as debugging. Playtesting is the design equivalent of bug fixing. (Stable + Boring) vs. (Unstable + Fun) 3/19

4. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS Not just anyone will be able to playtest a game effectively. General impression: “that was fun” or “that was tedious” or “that was too hard” Constructive form: “When I was fighting the twelfth clown on level three, I thought he was too hard to defeat. I had no idea what I was supposed to do to kill him, or whether the attacks I was attempting were having any effect at all. I thought maybe I was supposed to roll the boulder at him, but I could not figure out how to do so.” 4/19

5. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS Know how seriously to take their opinions and what biases they may have. Whiners: who complain about everything, even things that do not need fixing. Shy: “Maybe you should look at the power of the Elephant Rider unit” Regardless of the testers’ tendencies, if a number of them bring up a similar issue, then something probably is wrong. 5/19

6. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD T EST Have some from each group working on your project. With playtesters more truly are merrier. Broad Range of opinions Different types of playtesters: Member of Development Team Traditional Playtester First-Impression Testers Developers outside team. Non Gamers 6/19

7. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD T EST Member of Development Team It keeps them enthused about the project. They can provide you feedback about how the game is working and what you might do to improve it. May be far from objective in their comments about it. They may tend to like or dislike their own work for personal reasons. Similarly, they may like or dislike the ideas of other members of the team because of their opinions of that person. 7/19

8. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD T EST First Impression Tester Many «kleenex tester» were used to perfect the interface in TheSims They can provide essential feedback about unintuitive controls, unclear presentation of information, or unfairly difficult portions of the game. You must keep bringing in new ones, since a human can only truly have a first impression of a game once 8/19

9. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD T EST Developers outside team. These testers understand game design. They can analyze how your project may come up short and how it might be improved Whatever feedback these fellow designers give you can be extremely helpful 9/19

10. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD T EST Non-gamers Gamers will have an especially high tolerance for the things that games traditionally do badly. Non-gamers provide fabulous feedback, pointing out fundamental problems that hard-core gamers will overlook and forgive. Useful in determining if an interface is too confusing or the game is too unforgiving 10/19

11. F INDING THE R IGHT T ESTERS W HO SHOULD NOT T EST Boss He may try to impose a solution on you Marketing Department Instead of their opinions, they will try to figure out what the “target demographic” wants. “Game of the week” syndrome Friends They will sugarcoat their opinions out of misguided kindness. Idiots Idiots tend to say idiotic things and have idiotic opinions Hard-core fans Fanatical about your game’s genre or the previous version of the game 11/19

12. W HEN TO T EST E ARLY P LAYTESTING Early playtesting requires that the tester overlook many problems the game crashes frequently art is place-holder there is only one level to play sections of the game are obviously incomplete Game developers inside or outside the team will be able to recognize and explain fundamental problems 12/19

13. W HEN TO T EST GUI AND C ONTROLS Bring in some first-impression testers to experiment with these new GUI and controls. If players do not figure them out immediately, you will know your game needs work. 13/19

14. W HEN TO T EST A LPHA As the game becomes more complete. Traditional Testers who will try to find bugs But you should encourage them to look beyond the bugs and give you feedback about the gameplay itself if they can, before beta. 14/19

15. W HEN TO T EST B ETA Last step before a game is published Supposed to handle bug fixes. At this point, you stop being able to make fundamental changes to the gameplay for fear it will break the game in some major way Balancing 15/19

16. H OW TO TEST Observe testers while they are playing instead of telling them how to play Nothing can be achieved by guiding the testers- problems of the game cannot be learned If the testers really get stuck, the designer needs to ask himself what is causing these problems and he should try to fix. The designer also should consider whether the game support various playstyles When observing is not possible, designers have to rely on testers’ reports. The designer should be open to complaints and criticisms. 16/19

17. G UIDED AND UNGUIDED TESTING Guided testing Earlier to get ideas and feedback Later to check fixed/reworked sections Testing for whether the game breaks under some conditions Unguided testing Testing the whole game, not just some sections When testers are doing guided testing and if find out a problem in a part which they were not responsible, taking a note is important. 17/19

18. B ALANCING Most proper time to balance the game is when its finished Preliminary balancing may be done too Most of the time, game will be too difficult. 18/19

19. T HE A RTISTIC VISION Focus groups: Random people who are given a one- or two-hour presentation and particularly gathered early in a game’s development. Many times they are not allowed to play the games. They are informed about game concepts and, based on the descriptions, they are asked whether they would be interested in buying such a game. 19/19