Games Testing

Games Testing

The first reading I explored discussed the topic of how to give constructive criticism and why giving criticism is important. The second reading goes on to discuss the concept of playtesting and how to make the best use out of it.

Criticism by itself isn't helpful to a person if it's just negative- it can lead to arguments. We typically let our emotions speak before our logic so it's important to really question what you're giving criticism instead of just saying that you like it.

Constructive criticism is both positive and negative in terms of feedback- such as telling the person what they did well in their work and then also what they could improve on or things that can be avoided. This can help people grow in their work and also avoid hurt feelings or coming off as a personal attack or insult due to the structure of constructive criticism.

It's important to give valid and unbiased feedback- feedback that is free of personal taste or opinion and is credible and helpful since everyone has different tastes and opinions and it's not useful to the other person to push your own views onto them. It's also important to be in depth about what you're giving constructive criticism on, such as specifying what would look better eg. size and line spacing rather than just saying that you don't like it.

As a designer it's important to playtest your own games and to set up conditions for other people to playtest your games so that you can get useful information from other people's perspectives.

Playtesting with people who play games is very different from playtesting with game designers as the gamers are the target audience and therefore the feedback gotten from them can be far more valuable as they would be the people who eventually play the final product.

Playtesting without the designer in the room opens room for more observation from the testers and is called blindtesting.


Person testing a game
Source: Armed with Science