So a couple months ago I put up a playtest version of my game, available for free.

As far as I can tell, I've had a lot of downloads. Well over 100, which is pretty exciting.

But not much feedback.* That silence is deafening.

Any thoughts about how I can get people to pipe up and say "it sucks" or "it's cool" or "I was indifferent."

I removed the link for the moment, especially as the game's changed a bit, and I was thinking maybe of setting up a form on the site so potential players have to introduce themselves before getting it from me.

What works? Any success stories? Is no news bad news?

Thanks

*except Ian and Pete. You guys rock.

Don't be disheartened. The download to response ration is never that good.

Take The Agency for example. It gets around 10 requests a day. I get a piece of feedback every few months.

My only advice is making feedback as easy as possible, and be as friendly and enthusiastic as possible with every response.

-Matt

Hi Matt (and Matt),

Remember, too, that you don't really want initial impressions like "it sucks, it rocks" or whatever. That's not as useful as someone playing the damn thing. RPGs are strange birds because they take a long time to absorb -- longer than it takes to simply read it: You've got to digest it, find some peeps interested in playing it, play it, and then get them interested enough to comment.

I suggest posting your own Actual Play threads here at the Forge (worked wonders for BW) and getting a Playtest forum going -- either on your own site or something here. Having a forum where players can post when they get the urge is really important in these wired times.

-Luke

A form with little buttons in Javascript that says "fill this out after you've read the game" with specific questions that won't take long to answer.
I did something like that in print with early TROS versions, and it was a good thing.

Jake

Matt wrote: Don't be disheartened. The download to response ration is never that good.

Take The Agency for example. It gets around 10 requests a day. I get a piece of feedback every few months.

My only advice is making feedback as easy as possible, and be as friendly and enthusiastic as possible with every response.

Hey, Matt

Have you asked for feedback? That is, have you PMed a specific person or persons that you'd like to take a look at the game and asked them to do it? Preferably with specific issues you'd like their input on? I've had good results with this method.

Luke makes an excellent point, it doesn't matter how much feedback you get, it matters what quality it is.

I've been lucky in that several people have given various of my games very solid feedback, either on my forums, by email or in reviews. People who play, and find the wrinkles, are ultimately more valuable than a hundred responses of "hey, kewl!".

-Matt

Two things I've found are useful:

1) Let people see each other's feedback. Posting boards or mailing lists are good for this. Nobody ever wants to be the first to do anything, but plenty of them will speak up once someone else starts it.

2) Try giving focused questions out. "How do you like my system?" is rather vague. If you ask periodic questions on specific subjects like "Did character creation give you the kind of character you wanted from it?" you're more likely to get feedback. Plus, it's more likely to be useful.

Still, it's my experience that a 1% response rate is good for just about anything. Heck, look at registered users on the Forge. Something like half of them haven't even posted, but you only need to register if you want to post. Most people just don't respond, so don't be too discouraged.

Focused questions [Well, relatively focused ones like "Which was your favourite article? Why?" "Which was your least favourite, why?"] probably doubled the numerical amount of feedback I recieved regarding The Shadowrun Supplemental when I started using web-form-surveys as a way to gather feedback. The feedback forms were typically only used by a small percentage [1-2%, perhaps] of readers, but it was still a decent increase in feedback.

I also made the point of trying to respond to as much of the feedback as possible, and I think that helped me solidify the ideas and gave me some good feedback/rapport with some readers.

Best,
Adam

Michael S. Miller wrote: Hey, Matt

Have you asked for feedback? That is, have you PMed a specific person or persons that you'd like to take a look at the game and asked them to do it? Preferably with specific issues you'd like their input on? I've had good results with this method.

That sounds right, Matt. The key, as people are indicating, is to have a rapport with the playtester. If they're doing a favor for somebody they respect, then they're waaaay more likely to actually play and post feedback.

Further, if you've got more than one group playing your game, then consider yourself lucky. We'd all love to have a jillion playtesters, but it just isn't going to happen period. Fortunately one really good playtester is worth about a hundred, "This rocks" style readers.

Also, another technique that works is to trade playtests. Find someone else looking to get a playtest and exchange. That works with alarming frequency, and you tend to get really good feedback (the other guy is a designer after all).

In fact, I have a game that I'd swap with you for a test if you're interested.

Then as Jake has said, the key is to ask real questions. If possible a dialog is good.

Just to be clear, it's good to first have a period of unbiased feedback. That is, where you're not communicating directly with the playtester (again Jake's forms are good). But once that's exhausted, then push with personal questions. Present your bias, and see if they can support or break it. But keep in close contact.

Playtesters are golden.

Mike

I get about 800 per month for Icar and I find that a little link on the download page to the Guestbook has worked really well. I get a lot of people just saying hello. Of course, they haven't played it yet but they do give good wishes.

I get a few people on the phpBB forum I set up but normally at random and they are quite uncommon.