If you’ve been following our posts, you’ll know that Will Lewis has been chronicling his design journey for Becoming the Villain, our studio’s first title (you can read his most recent post here). In the last installment, Will discussed how he set up a few rounds of playtesting with early versions of the game. For anyone new to the TTRPG space, or the games industry in general, I thought it might be nice to delve into this a little bit more and talk about the game from the viewpoint of a playtester.
So, what is a playtester? Isn’t that just playing the game?
Well, yes– and no.
Playtesting a game is about playing the game but more than that, it’s about discovering what parts of the game are fun, which aspects of the documentation are clear, and whether or not there are any problems with the design of the game. By and large, playtesting is a method of quality assurance as games should be tested just as any product is tested.
So, how does it work?
For us, playtesting involved a few rounds, some in which Will walked a close friend through the game and then let them play without interruption (except to answer questions) and some in which Will brought the game to people he had never met and just let them play the game. I was part of the former group, so I’ll talk more about that later. If you want to learn more about the latter group, check out Will’s last article!
The first thing I realized when I was taking on the role of playtester was simple: how do I actually do this? How can I make sure this is a useful exercise? The only way to figure it out was by giving it a shot, so let me talk a bit about what I learned.
- Try to be as clear as possible. Sometimes this won’t work out, there might be something in the game that just feels “off.” However, while that can be somewhat useful feedback, it’s more useful to give specific feedback about the game. For example, when I first ran through the game with Will I felt a little confused; after talking with him, we realized there needed to be more detail in explaining the differences between goals, ambitions, and motivations in the game. Once we chatted about it, it made a ton of sense! As a result, some of those sections were edited to reflect those conversations and the game was stronger for it.
- Try to pay extra attention when hearing/reading the rules. Learning a new game can sometimes be overwhelming, so it’s important to pay close attention to the rules as a playtester. If confusion comes from something in the game being unclear, that’s useful to know! But, if it’s unclear because you were on your phone or daydreaming about playing the game, that becomes much less useful.
- Negative feedback is really important. One of the most critical things about the playesting process is trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. For this reason, it is vital that you stay honest and provide feedback when something isn’t working– or just isn’t fun. A great game mechanic on paper may not be great in play, and it’s useful to the designers to know that.
- Positive feedback is really important! This might sound like I’m just saying “give the designers compliments!” and while I don’t discourage that, it isn’t exactly what I mean. What I mean is that games should be fun. That is often their primary goal! As such, it is crucial to know which parts of the game are fun. For me, this came about when we got to the part of the game where I got to draw tarot cards. Being able to physically draw a card and then find the corresponding prompt was exciting! My story was in my hands, but the situations my character ended up in were thrown their way rather than chosen. This was really fun for creating a villain because it ended up creating a more authentic character. In real life, we have choice for how we handle circumstances but often we don’t get a say in what circumstances come our way. The results of those scenarios can shape who we are as people, and the same is true for people we write about. This was such a fun mechanic to play with, which was great because a lot of the game centers around drawing cards.
- Have fun with it! Again, games are meant to be fun, so if you are playtesting a game for a friend or a colleague, remember to have fun with it!
Being a part of the playtesting process also helped to inform my outlook later on as an editor and collaborator, and overall it helped make the final version better. There were many playtesters aside from me that also offered incredible feedback, and both Will and I are really grateful for their support.
If you want to keep learning about There’s A Way Studios and/or our game, Becoming The Villain, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media!
Later days, friends!
– Will Primrose
There’s A Way Studios is an independent game design studio based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.
There's a Way Studios 