Playtesting Misery

[Frank T]

Here is my dilemma: I have designed a game, BARBAREN!. I have had four playtesting sessions, all of them one-on-one with the same player. Those went very much to my satisfaction and helped me hammer down a beta test version with some changes inspired by the playtest. But: there’s no-one else around to playtest the thing with, and even the one player I had doesn’t have time for a regular game. None of the people from the online community who announced they were going to test it ever came back with any feedback either.

I will get the chance to have one round, a one-shot, on the summer meeting of my German RPG forum in August. I could probably have another round on the next meeting half a year later, and if I’m lucky, I could get some people together for one more round in between. That would make for three rounds of playtesting in 8 months.

What’s more, when I start preparing for my accountant exams next year, I won’t have much time for writing. The best chance to actually write the game is this summer, when I’m on a seminar in the middle of nowhere for six weeks. It would still be a long way until publishing from then, but it would be a start.

So, what would you do? Would you write and publish a game with only the slightest bit of playtesting, risking a whole bunch of bugs and bad balancing? Or would you wait and hope for more playtests, accepting that it’ll probably be years and years until you publish the game, if at all?

- Frank

[Ben Lehman]

Put together a PDF or clean word document if you can.  Then, post a public call for playtesters.  Send respondents the text, with clear guidelines (play this x times by y date.)

Worked for me.

yrs--
--Ben

[Frank T]

Hi Ben, Germany ain't the US. We are roughly 100 million German native speakers, and an even in relation small internet community. I have a plain text version online since November, 2004. Didn't work. I didn't try the clear guidelines, though.

- Frank

[Ben Lehman]

Have you thought about:
1) An English translation?
2) A closed playtest group?

I know it sounds strange, but in my experience, people are more likely to play a game if you hand it to them, personally, and it isn't publically available than if anyone can just download it.  Strange, I know.

yrs--
--Ben

[Frank T]

All right, I am grateful for tips on how to get more playtesting, but nonetheless I'd be interested in opinions on the initial question. So suppose I just can't get more playtesters: Publish anyway, or not publish at all? That's the question on my mind.

- Frank

[daMoose_Neo]

If we're talking PDF, this would be my reccomendation:

1) Get it all laid out properly and ready for release
2) Ask for reviews of the file, prelims if possible so you can make some changes before officially releasing it
3) Release it as a PDF, include a clear channel to you, either through a site or forum
4) Encourage honest critiquing of the system and ask folks as often as possible about what works and what doesn't.
5) Give it a couple months, put together a Revised PDF (Because hey, you can! No stock to maintain!), offer it up to the initial purchasers as a freebie (because again, its not stock, no loss!)

This is all assuming the system is satisfactory to yourself at the very least. If you still have something nagging you about it, don't release it and just keep testing it and posing questions here. Otherwise, if you're happy with the state of the system, there is no reason not to go ahead and release a PDF. Something crops up that needs changing, then make the changes- you won't be able to do that with print stock however.

[Frank T]

Hi Nate, for me, the system works very satisfactory. There still is some things I need to think about, but I can do some "dry testing" on that, just calculating by myself. However, with releasing the PDF and revising it, since I'm getting professional layout, that will cost extra. It is an option, though.

Yet I know few people in Germany that actually play PDF-only games. We like to have something in our hands, that's the way we are. The plan is to have a book in the end, and a free PDF.

- Frank

[daMoose_Neo]

Nothing wrong with a print copy, just that with you being uncertain as to the final suitability of the title, a PDF only initial release seems the best approach.  When working with your layout person, possibly see about a more modular design? That way, if you have to make adjustments to one segment or another you can do so much easier than if the whole document is fit together snugly, at least for the PDF.
If you're going pro-layout and don't want to make adjustments, AND still are unsure about the balance, keep trucking then and work out those bugs.

[Ben Lehman]

I guess my best advice would be -- playtest anyway.

For instance:  If can get me an English copy, I will try to play at YukiCon (Andy Kitkowski's upcoming housecon) and maybe at GenCon, too.

I am biased, though.  BARBAREN seems like an awesome game to me, and I want it to be really refined by the time it goes to market.

Another approach is the "preliminary edition" approach.  Michael Miller used this for With Great Power... and apparently it was quite successful for him.  Essentially, release a cheap "preliminary edition" and make it very clear that it is not a finished product.  You will still sell a lot.  Have a forum or an e-mail address prominently in the book, and make sure to pursue people who contact you to tell you what happened in their games.  Then, in a year, release the final version.

If you're really awesome, you might even give those that bought the Prelim edition a discount on the later one.

yrs--
--Ben