For this response I will be talking about chapter nines: Playtesting from the textbook Game Design Workshop, by Tracy Fullerton. Playtesting is a very crucial part of making a finished game. Playtesting games help provide important feedback to the developers so they know what will work and what does not work. There are many kinds of playtesting, such as self-testing, playtesting with confidants, playtesting who you do not know, and playtesting your target audience. Self-testing is when you playtest the game yourself and see if it works. While this is the easiest kind of playtesting, it may not be the most effective because you already know what game it is about and how it works. Playtesting with confidants has to do with people you know playtesting your games. This option should give you better feedback on how the game plays. One suggestion about having people you know playtest your own game is that their opinions may be biased due to them knowing you. Playtesting people who you do not know is exactly what it sounds like. In my opinion, this is one of the best kinds of playtesting, because the people who are playing the games will be more honest about what they play due to not connections with the creator of the game. Playtesting your target audience is also a good option if you want the best feedback for your game. The only problem is that it will be hard to target other audiences to play that certain game. For instance, a company that is targeting first-person shooter players to play this game will have a hard time convincing people who love third-person shooters to play their first-person shooter game.
I believe playtesting games is one of the most important things that a game developer needs to utilize the most. Playtesting is when you or other people get to physically play the game and see if it works or not. Playtesting should be used right until the deadline hits or until the game developer/s are satisfied with the game. I remember asking my parents to playtest my Pokémon board game from the beginning stage right until the final due date of the project. This helped me better tweak my game throughout the making of my game.
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.
Strangers are definitely the best way to go. I could even say that our group playtesting this week wasn’t inherently strangers. A lot of us are essentially biased because we are all students in a game design class. Most of us play games. A complete random playtest would have to be just setting up outside in a public area, but depending on the area that you are in, that could have bias too.
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