1. Choose Clear and Measurable Goals 

Though this might seem straightforward, it’s essential to establish your clear and measurable goals before the testing process! If a playtesting session is undertaken without choosing straightforward answerable questions, you as a developer are wasting valuable time with your audience. In addition, you’ll likely be unable to spot any minor visual, mechanical or gameplay problems from a player’s perspective, which could dramatically affect the reception of the game. After all, a playtesting session is meant to answer a specific set of questions, and fulfil a clear goal.

Some questions you might want to ask are:

• Does a given mechanic or level cause frustration?
• Does a specific level play/look worse than the others?

Another important point to note is that, if you ask these questions, you should gear the playtest towards answering them!

This means that for each question you intend to ask, your game testing should work with you, to get to the answers you need, as fast as possible. For instance, if you are looking for feedback on a specific mechanic, it would be a waste of time and unnecessary for the playtesters to play a whole loop of the game. This means that you might develop just that section to be playable during testing, rather than waste time with extraneous gameplay details.

2. Communication is Key 

An important tool here is communication with your playtesters – even if this communication leads to critiques of your game. Such criticism needs to be embraced, as it’s through these conversations that the development of your game will improve! Though harsh criticism might ostensibly seem like a setback, everything you learn about your game will make it stronger upon its release. Connecting with your players and prospective players and truly hearing their response to your product is the only way to amend your game in a way that its audience wants. Communication is the only way to ensure that the player’s experience of your game is the best that it can be, through understanding where the intended player journey falls short of its reality.

3. Don’t Influence Their Experience

This is perhaps the most difficult thing to remember for many game developers! Once you have been involved in the development of a game, it can prove tricky to allow it to be tested objectively and fairly. Asking the testers for their feedback is a vital element of the process, and should be done using pre-written questions. Take care not to point out parts of the game that you think need work, and instead let the user talk you through their opinion and experience of the game. If your testers are allowed to talk honestly about their experience of the play, potential gaps or loopholes in the system can be closed and any obstacles smoothed out.