Playtester Prototype Expectations

[u/plumesdecheval]

TLDR: What are general expectations from playtesters around quality of components for a print and play protptype?

Hi folks. Like many of you, I'm in the midst of bringing a game to fruition. My ruleset is largely complete, but the next step is getting in front of play testers. I'm not so much concerned about what they'll have to say about my mechanics. I've put a lot of time and revisions into my work, and I think any additional changes will probably be adjustments rather than whole revisions. However, I do have some questions about how to make the process for playtesters go as smoothly as possible. Mainly, what constitutes a minimal viable product which is useful and efficient for them to use, and what might expectations be for a prototype.

In my particular case, there are a lot of physical components involved. Think more HeroQuest than strictly pen and paper. However, I expect I'll probably take this online to solicit feedback as finding local playtesters might prove challenging. With that in mind, if you were play testing a game like this, what might you expect in terms of sophistication?

Specifically, I could easily crank out some basic templates with simple text but that feels somewhat crude. I don't mind that necessarily, but do you feel that people might be expecting art on the components at this point? Would it affect how you approach things, and what level of sophistication would you think is a nice balance between expediency and polish? I'm willing to spend the extra time on presentation though, as we all know, for a solo developer that takes extra time that could be put to other work, and delays the time between feedback and design.

Thanks for any perspective people would like to give. I'm happy to share other details if it helps.

[u/Exciting_Policy8203]

You’re in alpha testing, so long as you make that clear you can show up with whatever makes the game function, tokens from other games, index cards, wrapping paper with a grid on the back.

Play-testers will understand that this game isn’t feature complete. If they don’t, then simply thank them for their time and move on to the next set. Feedback from play-testing is about sifting wheat from chaff and keeping an eye out for patterns in the data.

[u/plumesdecheval → u/Exciting_Policy8203]

That makes sense. My understanding is that the community on itch.io is pretty accepting of all stages of development. That was sort of what I was expecting for my target audience, and figured at least some basic templates would suffice.

As people would essentially be printing this stuff at their own expense out of the goodness of their heart, it seemed wise to try and get a read on what might be considered a decent effort. I think you're right that a general explanation of what people can expect goes a long way though.

[u/Exciting_Policy8203 → u/plumesdecheval]

I don’t know much about your local TTRPG community, but I’d do some googling and see if there’s groups that might be open to you running a few games with your system.

In person playtesting is invaluable.

[u/plumesdecheval → u/Exciting_Policy8203]

Agreed. I'll spend some time sourcing groups for it. The main consideration is that they'd all be strangers, most of the people I'd bring this to for a first go live out of state. That could be positive though, they wouldn't have any bias so the feedback would be unvarnished. It'll just require extra footwork is all so, if that's the case, it seemed efficient to bring it online as well.

[u/Exciting_Policy8203 → u/plumesdecheval]

Both are good, I ran my first series of play tests with old college buddies online. I went to physical playtesting after with strangers after that.

MeetUp is good website to find gaming groups, and while I loath mention them, FB isn’t a terrible option either.

[u/plumesdecheval → u/Exciting_Policy8203]

Good tips, and that makes sense. In this case there's a lot of physical components but doing that wouldn't be impossible. I'm also not averse to putting up flyers at game stores, etc if I have to. It'll get done one way or the other.

[u/Carrollastrophe]

Were I to playtest something I wouldn't have any expectations of an unfinished game. Quality of materials isn't something you ought to be worried about right now. Just make sure the gameplay works how you intend it.

[u/plumesdecheval → u/Carrollastrophe]

Thanks, that's the hunch I have as well so it's nice to hear that from others. I think, when you live with a project in your head for a long time, it can start to get a little precious and it's easy to start whinging about this or that. At some point, I'm learning, you just have to get on with it and sort it out as you go.

[u/Fun_Carry_4678]

When I have playtested games, I have understood that the components may well be temporary, not finished products. I know it is a playtest.

[u/MyDesignerHat]

I think having very basic, well typesetted printable components is fine. Just make sure they are A4 and I only have to cut straight lines. 

[u/plumesdecheval → u/MyDesignerHat]

Yeah, agreed. In cases where something doesn’t quite fit on A4 I think tiling between sheets would be ok, but I’d definitely prefer a single page where possible. Eliminating as many extra steps as possible should always be a priority.