Inside Playtesting: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Get Started

[@mattsmith6558]

I have recently started trying to design my first game. I researched online for some tips and kept hearing how "the final game will look nothing like how it started". I always interpreted this as a huge negative because I love my idea; I don't want it to become something else. But someway into designing and playtesting, I realised that the process of development had forced me to problem solve, fix and discover a BETTER game. Saying "the final game will look nothing like how it started" isn't negative at all. It's a hugely positive thing. It gives me so much more motivation to start a new design, excited at the prospect of what direction it might go.

[@_Waluigi_]

Wise words 🍷

[@jeremiahdonaldson1678]

The flip side of that is that the more the finished product doesn't resemble the game when it started, the more off your original idea was. I try to do most of my game design in my head as thought experiments long before I put anything down to test. Anything that doesn't make it past the thought experiment stage probably isn't worth more time and I use the same process with my writing by making notes and if it's something that stays in my head, the notes steadily get more complicated as they're redone 8-12 months later. But if something isn't interesting enough to stay in my head, I just move on to other ideas. In this way, anything I start spending real time on has already gone through at least 2-3 years of thought. There's some exceptions, like for contests, but I don't mess with stuff like that much due to the lack of thought that can be put into the idea.

[@robertnoall8847]

I do not comment on videos often, I am a huge boardgame fan, I have many at home. I have been working out an idea for a long time now and I have started putting it together. Not only do you give amazing information but I think you should know (if you do not know already) that you give confidence to people with ideas. The way you explain things makes me feel empowered to try and see how something goes. Thanks so much for making these videos. This is my 4th video and I feel how genuine you are oozing through youtube! Thanks so much Adam!

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks Robert - that’s really good to hear. Good luck with your game! :)

[@jasonbeane8683]

Okay, I'm clearly late to the party, but I just found the channel and I'm working my way through the back issues! Great videos, really useful perspective! I just had to chime in with the one time when I was a Playtester and had to sign an NDA first. It was from a large publisher, and involved a licensed IP. To me, it makes sense, they weren't ready to announce the game, and didn't want speculation to start up, or for chatter to risk their license. Of course, that's not a scenario that's going to come up very often, so it's not really worth being in this type of video. Thanks for creating all of these incredibly useful videos! You've got a great delivery, and the content comes across as really well thought out. They're interesting, and useful to boot!

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks - glad you’re enjoying the videos :)

[@letsplayavecalnos751]

For what he say at around the 7 minutes mark, the game I'm currently working on the first time I tested it with someone, it was broken. I still ask if it was fun. The answer: the game is to broken to have fun, but the idea seem and sound fun. I powered through it. Haven't finished to balance everything yet, but now when I test it, people tell me that the game is actually fun to play. :D

[@lotte657]

Very useful information Adam, thanks a lot :) currently designing my first boardgame and thinking about starting to playtest. This video helps!

[@AdaminWales]

Great! Good luck!

[@raphaelstocker9874]

This is so helpful, thx. Haven't thought of a journal like you showed it. I only did bullet point summaries

[@jzaporteza]

Great advice. This is exactly what I did when I created my board game. The difficult part was being somewhat an introvert. I’ve settled on 1 group that actually does play testing vs. playing published games. The other option is to have children which are instant play testers 😊

[@lamfgames]

This video was super helpful. I'm already in the latter stages of playtesting my first game. I've tested it with over 150 people at different conventions all over the US, but I'm still in the process of adding my game into a digital platform to broaden my playtesters. Hopefully, I'll be done with that within the next couple of months though.

[@AdaminWales]

Good luck with it!

[@lamfgames]

@@AdaminWales thank you! I recently put out a video about my trip to GenCon and everything is moving along nicely before my Kickstarter campaign launch next year. 😁

[@willmolinar]

Love this series! I have "designed" 2 games so far, still working out the kinks in both. One is a Ghostbusters game, began simply because none of the licensed games out there for this IP are any good and I wanted one that was enjoyable to play. Same with the current game I'm working on, a sandbox circus board game, now at the prototype/play testing stage. Your videos are really helping me so thank you, sir!

[@keithparker1346]

circus boardgame sounds interesting

[@NicHills]

Hi Adam, firstly, congratulations on a wonderful KZbin channel (I’ve binge watched a bunch of your videos already) and they have answered so many questions I had, and for that I thank you. As a KZbinr myself I can appreciate that making videos isn’t easy but your videos are truly excellent and impart so much information in an effortlessly watchable way. As a fledgling game designer and wannabe game publisher I have many questions, but for now just wanted to say hi, and well done on the channel, all the best, Nic

[@AdaminWales]

Hi Nic, thanks for stopping by to say hello! Happy to answer any questions, or help if I can :)

[@jamesbrazeal3847]

Adam you are on fire, these videos have been great. I always love to hear what you have to say about design.

[@MegaVin99]

Such an insightful video! Very helpful!

[@hruthgardahne822]

Great videos you've put out there, very helpful and interesting. Iam in the process of creating my own board game right now and i already did a red flag, hiring artists myself to get a prototype ready the way i want it to be...well i guess thats my personal problem ha. Anyway, the journey so far is exciting and iam looking forward till my prototyp is finally "ready" to be playtested, until then iam absorbing all your videos, having a good time and i just hope you have a great day too!

[@AdaminWales]

Glad you’re having fun with design. Good luck!

[@bruceknight3720]

Excellent again. Just shared this today with someone from my pub-gaming group who is hoping to get folks to test his new game. Maybe gave him some food for thought! Seeing as you're on a roll, I'd be interested to see a "fave new games video" too. (not your usual thing I know, but it's unusual times, etc..!)

[@AdaminWales]

Bruce Knight Hi Bruce. To be honest, I haven’t played many games this year! So the newest games I’ve played are all featured in my 2019 end of year video. Currently, my wife and I are just having the occasional game of Bunny Kingdom or Quacks of Quedlinburg, which have been her favourites for ages.

[@whateverwithalex9083]

Deciding when to pursue an idea is an essential idea. I started a project, and it wasn't very fun and was kind of broken. I put it down for about a year and a half and recently came back to it. It does indeed look very different than the original idea but it's actually fun and playable now, and it still has the same core mechanics. Just because it doesn't work right away or you can't get it to work, it's okay to make changes, but also to put it on the backburner for a while.

[@keithparker1346]

on the opposite side of that coin - knowing when to quit is also crucial. I suspect people dont like the idea of quitting as we are kind of raised to not quit, the plucky hero perseveres etc

[@davidakenson7173]

What a great Chanel! Such useful information clearly presented. Thanks

[@AdaminWales]

Thanks David - glad you’re finding it useful.

[@rpm381]

This is really great advice, thanks for making this video!

[@AdaminWales]

Glad it was helpful!

[@arturobribiesca741]

I find it sad that, where I live, I do not know of any board game group that is organized and constantly meets up. I would love to playtest my games with more people, but it is often not possible. My dream is to one day join a playtest group or just a board-game group for that matter.

[@AdaminWales]

That’s a shame! I’m sure you’ve tried looking online. There are many boardgame groups that meet in my area, all of which have a Facebook group - so that seems like the best place to search. Alternatively, going on Boardgamegeek website and asking in a forum might reveal some local players. Good luck!

[@keithparker1346]

I assume you are writing from the UK. I think its a shame that the UK does not really follow mainland Europes thing where they have Ludotheques - libraries for games. I used to live in Switzerland and they have these games libraries spread all over. The best thing like normal libraries is... they are free. Over here in the UK I think we are getting boardgaming cafes pop up BUT they typically charge entry fees. Anyway with games libraries they typically had regular games groups

[@joshblake7707]

I am currently making my own variant of mafia and after play testing I had to nerf a lot of the roles because they were too OP, the play testers didn’t like how strong I made the evil roles. Overall I got pretty good responses other than that so I am continuing to pursue the game

[@AdaminWales]

Great! Stick at it.

[@mdmalik]

Hi Adam thanks for your wonderful video, Really I want to ask few questions about pitching, what r the essential part and mandatory things expect the publisher from game also share some publisher details which will help us to contact without hassle

[@AdaminWales]

Hi - glad you found the video helpful. I have several videos about pitching, so probably worth watching those. Have a look through the channel and see if there are some topics which seem interesting. I don’t really have anything else to add that isn’t in those videos! There is one called “How to pitch a board game to a publisher”. Another is called “How to build a great relationship with board game publishers”. And another called “How to choose the right publisher for your board game”. More recently there’s a video called “How to get your board game published” and one called “How NOT to pitch”. All of these will probably give you some good information. Cardboard Edison has a compendium of publisher details - check out their website. I think you have to purchase the compendium though to access it.

[@SK-WPG]

Great video. The only thing that concerns me is to "Not" expect people to sign "non disclosure agreements". I assumed that was normal. Especially if a game is very easy to replicate. This is why I've only play-tested my game with friends and family and have been remiss to show anyone else the game. What stops a publisher, random play tester or company from stealing your idea and doing it themselves, especially if you show them in detail?

[@rpm381]

There’s many great articles about this if you want to research it! Basically…your idea isn’t that special! Which can sound harsh, but the value is the execution and work you put into making it a reality, not the idea itself. Ideas are a dime a dozen…There are relatively few real original ideas, usually there’s iteration on existing ones. It’s a huge red flag and often instant denial from publishers when you ask for an NDA, it’s seen as a big noob question. As for theft, any designer worth their salt has countless notebooks full of their own ideas, not to mention a few or even dozens of prototypes they’re tinkering with. No one wants your idea, we are busy with our own ideas. The best thing you can do is get your prototype in front of lots of people as soon as you can, to establish that it’s yours. It’s worth researching protections as well. This is often misunderstood. I’m NOT a lawyer so do your own research, but basically: -Patents can be obtained to protect inventions, in this case game mechanics or devices that are unique and innovative. They are very expensive and hard to maintain so only big companies have typically done this. Magic, Twister, and Battleship have all had patents. MANY games borrow mechanics from each other and it’s fine because they’re not unique enough to qualify for patents (worker placement, drafting, deck building, etc) -Copyright protects your artistic expression and covers rules as written, art, etc. You can still use the same rule another game has used, you just can’t write it verbatim. -Trademarks protect company and product names, logos, etc so no one can impersonate them or be mistaken for your work by using a similar name. Sorry for the book, hope that’s helpful. Keep designing and good luck!!!

[@SK-WPG]

@@rpm381 Appreciate the information. I've already been looking at Patenting the game once I feel it's play tested / game balanced enough to spend the time and money on getting all that into place. I wouldn't show anyone outside my circle the game before having it patented, etc... From your insights, it looks like the Copyright makes the most sense, since the game is a bit of this and that to make something unique, based on borrowing aspects of other games. As far as how special or unique it is, time will tell. For the people who I've shown it to and play tested with, they believe it's a winner. No, that wasn't from my mom. I have watched videos and seen so many people speak about making game after game after game and of the hundreds of games I've seen on sites that sell games, I wouldn't play more than 1 or 2 of what I saw and of them, not many times. Again, appreciate your info and time and we shall see what happens, since I already have a few people wanting to invest. Cheers.

[@CactusJackter]

As an aspiring games designer (also in Wales), I'm looking at ways to playtest the games I design. However my health is completely in the toilet so going places and meeting people is something that is too difficult. Do you have any advice or recommendations for online playtesting services or groups I could look into? Cheers.

[@AdaminWales]

Hi - sorry to hear you can’t get out to playtesting groups. Send an email to Chris from entrogames.com - I think he oversees a virtual playtesting group.

[@aquarius5719]

Market gets saturated with games about similar themes. But there are themes where you cannot find a single game. There were videogames that made people wishing more. And tabletop have not even covered that.

[@juan-rg3fu]

Great video, learnt a lot! Adam you are such a hidden gem ;)

[@AdaminWales]

If only I was a bit more disciplined and stuck to a frequent release schedule, maybe I wouldn't be so hidden!! Haha. I'm happy flying under the radar.

[@juan-rg3fu]

I'm sure you wouldn't ;)

[@cantrip7]

Thanks for the videos! This isn't related to this seriew, but would you do a video on solo games?

[@AdaminWales]

Tim Plusminus Hi Tim - thanks for watching. I’m afraid I can’t really do that, because I don’t play solo. I tried a few times several years ago - I remember trying Flashpoint Fire Rescue, Friday, Caverna, Agricola, and At the Gates of Loyang, but I had most fun with Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Unfortunately I have no experience with the more modern “Automas” which are often included in more recent games. If I felt the need to play solo, these days I’d probably play a logic puzzle from Smart Games or Happy Puzzle Company rather than a board game. You get the same tactile sensation of a board-game, but a quicker experience with increasing difficulty as you play more and more. But to be honest, virtually any solo gaming time is spent on designing rather than playing.-

[@rileymcphee9429]

I want my playtesters to tell me they loved the game, that I'm a very special boy, and that everything is gonna be okay 🥲

[@lamborghinicentenario2497]

but...but...but....I love Monopoly lmfao, because of the timing of investments most people seem to be pretty bad at. Monopoly does have too much luck involved though Great video

[@keithparker1346]

Theres far less luck involved in Monopoly than people think. I suspect you maybe thinking that you MUST land on a property space on the board to buy it - you dont it just means you have first chance to buy it before it goes to auction

[@offtocool]

Me in 2021 just wanted to do some game testing and 1min in he tells me that I can't do that

[@jestes7]

Are you ever afraid of people stealing your game?

[@AdaminWales]

I discuss that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYXFeal6l513fsk