Playtesting & Playtesters

I got an email earlier this week asking two questions.

1. Where can I find playtesters for my game?

2. How do I prevent playtesters from stealing my game idea?

When I get these questions, they are often together – so while this article is mostly focused on how to find playtesters, I do want to quickly address why you shouldn’t worry about your idea being stolen.

If this is old hat to you, then skip on down to the playesting section.

Ideas are Worthless

There is essentially nothing you can do to prevent someone from stealing your game from a mechanical perspective. You cannot copyright it, and besides, you probably stole your mechanisms from existing games (although the combination and implementation is unique).

Couple that with the fact that playtesting broadly is extremely important for developing and selling a good game – and it is pretty clear that you have no choice but to bite the bullet despite your hesitation and get to playtesting.

The good news is - that even though you cannot protect your game design – no one is going to steel it anyway.

Some blurry Froggy Bazaar playtesting

Bringing a game to market is an expensive and time consuming proposition (follow along as we take Froggy Bazaar from an idea to publication & beyond). It’s easy to over-estimate the value of your game idea, and underestimate the value of the rest of the process of bringing a game to market.

In short, even if your game rocks it isn’t worth it for anyone else to steal it.

Stealing a game would also come with a lot of risk. The indie design community is small and close-knit. And indie game consumers likely wouldn’t be forgiving towards a publisher who stole another designer’s game.

You do occasionally see successful games re-implemented like Cards Against Humanity broadly re-implemented Apples to Apples with NSFW content. But, I don’t know of any instances where an indie design was ripped off especially before publication.

So, get to playtesting!

Where to Find Playtesters

I like to think of playtesting in a couple of categories each with a different audience, and with different goals. Where you go to find playtesters in each stage will vary. And, as you playtest more you’ll be sourcing playtesters more broadly outside of your immediate circle.

Early Stage

The earliest stages of playtesting you’ll be figuring out whether your game is fun and functional. This will mostly be playing by yourself and roping family and friends into games while you iterate on rules.

Where to find early stage playtesters:

• Friends & Family

Mid Stage

As your game progresses you’ll be focused on developing the game, balancing it, and finding your audience. In some playtests you’ll be focused on getting feedback on specific mechanisms or interactions, in others you’ll want broad feedback, and in others you’ll be focused on what gamers your game gels with.

Sigil prototype from mid-stage playtesting

This long mid-stage will make up the vast majority of your playtesting and is what I think most designers are thinking of when they ask where to find playtesters.

Where to find mid stage playtesters

• Local designer meetups (check meetup and local board game groups)

• Game design forums: r/tabletopgamedesign, Board Game Design Lab

• Dedicated playtesting forums: Tabletop Games Playtesters Guild (FB), r/playtesters, Seeking Playtesters (BGG)

• Board game communities: TikTok Board Game Discord, Board Game Revolution, r/boardgames

• Friends of friends (we had a lot of friends share Nut Hunt and Sigil with their respective gamer groups to get blind playtesting feedback)

• Local game stores & board game cafes

A lot of designer playtesting in this stage will be on reciprocity. As your game becomes more polished a lot of gamers will be excited to test your game. Afterall, it’s not a hard ask to ask gamers to play games.

Late Stage

All of these stages blend together but in the late stages of playtesting your game has substantively solidified and playtesting becomes more focused on polishing the game, getting to know your audience, and getting your awesome game in front of more players.

Some Nut Hunt demoing at Gen Con 2022

Where you find late stage playtesters will overlap with mid-stage testers but with a bit more focus on both blind playtesting, with your target demographic, and in building an audience.

• Online gaming groups focused on your game’s genre (i.e. abstract strategy game groups if you have an abstract strategy game)

• With your target demographic (a teacher friend of ours tested Nut Hunt extensively with his 5th graders)

• Conventions

Blind Playtesting

Blind playtesting is when you send playtesters your game rules and either a physical copy of the game, or a digital version. Ideally the playtesters will be relatively distantly related to you. Blind playtesting is important for a few reasons:

• You can get feedback from players with how most players will experience the game (learning it themselves & playing).

• You can test rules clarity.

• Players are more likely to be frank without the emotional buy in of interacting with you (the game’s designer).

Most sourcing of blind playtesters is just asking in the communities where you are already sourcing non-blind playtesters. We also shared hard copies of our games within our friends who live in different cities to share with their gaming groups.

Going Digital

Creating a digital implementation of your game on Tabletop Simulator, Tabletopia, or Board Game Arena will massively expand your potential playtester base. I strongly recommend creating a digital implementation relatively early in your development process.

What is your favorite game that you playtested before it was published?