Myths and illusions of developers regarding playtests
In 2015, the number of mobile devices in the world reached two billion, the number of gamers - more than a billion. I sit down with my three year old son to play a game for small children on a smartphone. But despite the fact that we liked the marketing materials and we installed the game, we cannot understand what to do in the game. As a result, after fighting for five minutes with the hellish interface, we delete the game.
Tired already, it's time to make a small contribution to changing this situation. Would such a situation happen if the developer conducted a playtest? Never!
The fact is that many developers still either do not know about such a tool, or consciously avoid it. As a result, there are still games with a complex interface and unstable work.
Jesi Shell in his book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses wrote:
')
“Are playtests finding problems early, when there is still time to solve them? Yes. Does the team's playtests raise confidence that it makes the right game for the right audience? Yes. Are playtests required to create a good game? Yes. Do playtests scare me so much that I can't even think soberly? Yes Yes Yes! I know that playtests are good for my game. Not just good, but a must-have item. What am I afraid of? Yes, it's simple, I'm afraid that people will not like my game. I have to be over it, I know. But I'm not higher. When you create a game you put everything you can into it: heart, soul, dreams, blood, sweat and tears. The game over which you work so hard to become a part of yourself. "
And Jesse Shell was right about everything: Playtest is a way out of the comfort zone, it’s stress that not everyone is capable of, even from under the stick. I remember the jitters before the playtests, and before the releases of the patches and updates.
I will tell a little about myself. I’ve been in game development since 2004, I saw the production process of more than a dozen different large and small games. Soon I will release my second small mobile game. I will say right away, until I had been in Playtestix for half a year, in fact I myself doubted the absolute necessity of playtests. And only now I understand that there can be no good game without a playtest. And that the developer will never make a quality playtest myself, and I will try to explain this.
Relying on my more than ten years of experience in game development, I dare say that most developers consider themselves very cunning - they will save a couple of thousand dollars on playtests, having a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars for development.
And of course, they are very smart, because they all know about the desires of the target audience and how to make games. And if everyone knows, then you can not ask what the players want and how. Sobering comes only after the release or software launch. But it is already very difficult and expensive to change something seriously, because the game is ready.
And yet, all developers are afraid of playtests, because it’s more comfortable just to make a game from beginning to end on an abstract plan, than to understand at some stage that a part doesn’t work, or everything doesn’t work and something needs to be changed. What is the difference to an ordinary worker? What worries him most is whether he is paid money and whether he will have a job in a certain future.
That is, in fact, the investors most interested in playtests. Having a playtest they can:
Save money - by canceling a failure in advance, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Earn more by finding and fixing problems on time, and releasing a more successful product.
In this section, I want to list the many myths about playtests that I encountered during my work.
Myth 1: Experts
“We know best, because we have already done a lot of games and have seen a lot of statistics”
Nobody argues with the experience of such developers, and indeed statistics is an excellent and powerful decision-making tool. But the answers to some questions will not give any statistics. For example, is a player in the flow, NPS (Net Promoters Score), assessment of specific mechanics in the game, assessment of individual elements, perception of monetization triggers, retention, game perception dynamics, complexity, interface and control clarity, etc. Moreover, playtest is not a competitor of statistics, but a partner that will help to see the full picture.
Myth 2: Themselves with a mustache
“We honor and make playtest ourselves”
Most likely, the developer does not even suspect what tasks the playtest and focus group can solve. Also, he is unaware of the scale and complexity of this task for those who have never organized this event. Most likely, employees, bosses and a dozen more people from the street and, in fact, everything will play in the build. Unfortunately, most of these people will not be the Target Audience of the game, and therefore the results will be greatly distorted.
Myth 3: Baby
“Our project is too small to carry out playtest, everything is fine there”
Unfortunately, as I wrote at the beginning of the article, even in very small products there can be big problems, both with usability and performance.
Myth 4: Just a clone
“We just clone everything, we don't need playtest”
Even when making a clone, the developer will want to add something of his own, or even change the setting and style. And without conducting a study on the target audience, it is impossible to know whether a clone will work with your changes. Well, yes, of course, you can rely on your expertise and a sixth sense.
Myth 5: Mix of popular mechanics
“Our game is a mixture of popular mechanics who work great in successful games, why do we need playtest?”
The fact that these mechanics work in other games does not necessarily mean that they will work in a new game, and there may be many reasons for that - omission of the most important details, poorly compatible mechanics, poor balance, change of subject or style, etc.
Myth 6: It's never too late.
“We will playite later if something goes wrong”
Unfortunately, then it may be too late - not very good glory will spread about your game and muddy all your attempts to correct the situation. Even when making softlanches, it is better to check the game again before letting it swim. Every good or bad release affects the reputation of the company, and the subsequent expectations of players from your new products. You are not going to stop the release of a single game?
Myth 7: Ask the players
“All that is needed, we will ask the community in forums and in public”
Dialogue with the community is a great practice. But the problem is that the active community usually consists of loyal fans, who are also smaller in comparison with those who drop out or those who never write a word. In a word, those who answer you are not the core of the target audience. And the task of the developer is to please the majority of solvent players in Central Asia.
Myth 8: Statistics will help
"We will be judged by the statistics of the game"
I'm sure no one will argue that it is much easier and cheaper to correct errors during development than when it is completed, when each change will pull hundreds of other edits in the code and scripts. And one more important moment - statistics is a partner of the playtest, and not a substitute or an enemy. Having received information from different sides, it will be possible to more accurately determine the problems and their causes.
So we walked superficially on the main myths and illusions of developers.
Yes, yes it is superficial! We have not yet considered at what stages, what tools and what problems can be solved by conducting a playtest or focus group.
This is only the first publication on the topic of improving the quality of games. In the future I plan to write in more detail about various aspects and tools for determining the target audience and conducting its research.
I am very interested in your feedback and your experience. It would be great if you wrote about the myths about playtests that you met.
Tired already, it's time to make a small contribution to changing this situation. Would such a situation happen if the developer conducted a playtest? Never!
The fact is that many developers still either do not know about such a tool, or consciously avoid it. As a result, there are still games with a complex interface and unstable work.
Jesi Shell in his book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses wrote:
')
“Are playtests finding problems early, when there is still time to solve them? Yes. Does the team's playtests raise confidence that it makes the right game for the right audience? Yes. Are playtests required to create a good game? Yes. Do playtests scare me so much that I can't even think soberly? Yes Yes Yes! I know that playtests are good for my game. Not just good, but a must-have item. What am I afraid of? Yes, it's simple, I'm afraid that people will not like my game. I have to be over it, I know. But I'm not higher. When you create a game you put everything you can into it: heart, soul, dreams, blood, sweat and tears. The game over which you work so hard to become a part of yourself. "
And Jesse Shell was right about everything: Playtest is a way out of the comfort zone, it’s stress that not everyone is capable of, even from under the stick. I remember the jitters before the playtests, and before the releases of the patches and updates.
I will tell a little about myself. I’ve been in game development since 2004, I saw the production process of more than a dozen different large and small games. Soon I will release my second small mobile game. I will say right away, until I had been in Playtestix for half a year, in fact I myself doubted the absolute necessity of playtests. And only now I understand that there can be no good game without a playtest. And that the developer will never make a quality playtest myself, and I will try to explain this.
Illusions
Relying on my more than ten years of experience in game development, I dare say that most developers consider themselves very cunning - they will save a couple of thousand dollars on playtests, having a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars for development.
And of course, they are very smart, because they all know about the desires of the target audience and how to make games. And if everyone knows, then you can not ask what the players want and how. Sobering comes only after the release or software launch. But it is already very difficult and expensive to change something seriously, because the game is ready.
And yet, all developers are afraid of playtests, because it’s more comfortable just to make a game from beginning to end on an abstract plan, than to understand at some stage that a part doesn’t work, or everything doesn’t work and something needs to be changed. What is the difference to an ordinary worker? What worries him most is whether he is paid money and whether he will have a job in a certain future.
That is, in fact, the investors most interested in playtests. Having a playtest they can:
Save money - by canceling a failure in advance, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Earn more by finding and fixing problems on time, and releasing a more successful product.
Myths
In this section, I want to list the many myths about playtests that I encountered during my work.
Myth 1: Experts
“We know best, because we have already done a lot of games and have seen a lot of statistics”
Nobody argues with the experience of such developers, and indeed statistics is an excellent and powerful decision-making tool. But the answers to some questions will not give any statistics. For example, is a player in the flow, NPS (Net Promoters Score), assessment of specific mechanics in the game, assessment of individual elements, perception of monetization triggers, retention, game perception dynamics, complexity, interface and control clarity, etc. Moreover, playtest is not a competitor of statistics, but a partner that will help to see the full picture.
Myth 2: Themselves with a mustache
“We honor and make playtest ourselves”
Most likely, the developer does not even suspect what tasks the playtest and focus group can solve. Also, he is unaware of the scale and complexity of this task for those who have never organized this event. Most likely, employees, bosses and a dozen more people from the street and, in fact, everything will play in the build. Unfortunately, most of these people will not be the Target Audience of the game, and therefore the results will be greatly distorted.
Myth 3: Baby
“Our project is too small to carry out playtest, everything is fine there”
Unfortunately, as I wrote at the beginning of the article, even in very small products there can be big problems, both with usability and performance.
Myth 4: Just a clone
“We just clone everything, we don't need playtest”
Even when making a clone, the developer will want to add something of his own, or even change the setting and style. And without conducting a study on the target audience, it is impossible to know whether a clone will work with your changes. Well, yes, of course, you can rely on your expertise and a sixth sense.
Myth 5: Mix of popular mechanics
“Our game is a mixture of popular mechanics who work great in successful games, why do we need playtest?”
The fact that these mechanics work in other games does not necessarily mean that they will work in a new game, and there may be many reasons for that - omission of the most important details, poorly compatible mechanics, poor balance, change of subject or style, etc.
Myth 6: It's never too late.
“We will playite later if something goes wrong”
Unfortunately, then it may be too late - not very good glory will spread about your game and muddy all your attempts to correct the situation. Even when making softlanches, it is better to check the game again before letting it swim. Every good or bad release affects the reputation of the company, and the subsequent expectations of players from your new products. You are not going to stop the release of a single game?
Myth 7: Ask the players
“All that is needed, we will ask the community in forums and in public”
Dialogue with the community is a great practice. But the problem is that the active community usually consists of loyal fans, who are also smaller in comparison with those who drop out or those who never write a word. In a word, those who answer you are not the core of the target audience. And the task of the developer is to please the majority of solvent players in Central Asia.
Myth 8: Statistics will help
"We will be judged by the statistics of the game"
I'm sure no one will argue that it is much easier and cheaper to correct errors during development than when it is completed, when each change will pull hundreds of other edits in the code and scripts. And one more important moment - statistics is a partner of the playtest, and not a substitute or an enemy. Having received information from different sides, it will be possible to more accurately determine the problems and their causes.
So we walked superficially on the main myths and illusions of developers.
Yes, yes it is superficial! We have not yet considered at what stages, what tools and what problems can be solved by conducting a playtest or focus group.
This is only the first publication on the topic of improving the quality of games. In the future I plan to write in more detail about various aspects and tools for determining the target audience and conducting its research.
I am very interested in your feedback and your experience. It would be great if you wrote about the myths about playtests that you met.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/273419/
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