This article originally appeared in Issue 14 of The Campaigner, published in 2015. The issue is still available as digital download or in limited print stock.
By Matthew Lee, with Stefan Barton-Ross, Justin Halliday and Aaron Lim
Games don’t just appear in the world fully formed. They have months, sometimes even years, spent on their development. For most game designers coming up with an idea for a game seems to be the easy part. Making the game work, and then fun, is where the real challenge lies.
One of the game designer’s most valuable tools is the game prototype. This is used to test rules, game mechanics, player understanding and a multitude of other aspects of the game. But the prototype is next to useless without someone to play it. This is where the game testers come in. And they have an important part to play.
This article will look at what game testers do, and how this helps the game designer and their game. The aim is to provide a framework so that new testers, or people interested in helping in game testing, can provide valuable and useful feedback.
Helping with this article, by giving their expertise and thoughts, are Stefan Barton-Ross, Justin Halliday and Aaron Lim. These three run Incubator at Games Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, a regular event for tabletop game designers which includes prototype testing sessions. You can find details about Incubator by searching for ‘Games Laboratory Incubator’ on Facebook.
First, let’s talk about what a play tester’s role is. Play testers are an important part of a games development, they provide game designers with a new perspective, and can cover gaps in the game designer’s knowledge. “Testing is particularly crucial in understanding the physical properties of the game; legibility of information on components, space the game takes up, time the game takes.” Stefan explained.
The main role of the game tester is to play the game and provide feedback. “That feedback may not necessarily be active,” said Aaron “the main thing a play tester should be focused on is playing the game to the best of their ability.” Here, feedback refers to any data the game designer can collect from the game tester’s experience. This won’t necessarily be input explicitly from the tester themself, it might be observations the designer has made during play.
Justin elaborated, “When I have a game very early in development, I need a play tester who can be a warm body to follow the instructions and play the game as it is, without any feedback. Later on, the testers provide feedback about their interaction with the game; was it easy or hard, were they confused about the rules, did they feel like they had meaningful choices.”
It is important to understand what a prototype is, and what role it fulfils in the development process. The prototypes purpose is to provide a framework for the game designer and testers to interact with the game itself. This lets the designer see the game in its current form as it plays in a real world situation.
Article continues in Issue 14. The issue is still available as digital download or in limited print stock.
