Wednesday 31 May 2017

Publishing Advice #25: Playing vs Playtesting

http://www.rakuontheboard.com/2017/05/Playing-vs-Playtesting.html

As you probably noticed, quite often I'm writing about being efficient and productive. As a father of six plus one on the way with a "normal" job, my time resources are very limited. All that forced me to think more about time management!

And as you probably already know (especially if you are reading my blog), playtesting is one of the aspects where you can waste a lot of time.

And I'm often seeing that some designers and publishers are advertising their games as playtested 100 times or even 1000 times. But that can be quite misleading as not everyone understands what playtesting means.

Did you ever think that playing a prototype doesn't mean playtesting it? Are you really playtesting your prototype? Actually, it's critical to distinguish these two things. Let's then have a better look on this!

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Publishing Advice #24: Four Types of Playtesters

http://www.rakuontheboard.com/2017/05/Four-Types-of-Playtesters.html

About two weeks ago I had a privilege of taking part in Ignacy Trzewiczek's conference about board game design. Having a chance to listen to one of the most experienced and respectful board game designers is the best way to learn new things and avoid mistakes! A significant part of the speech was dedicated to playtesting prototypes. And a big part of it about categorising playtesters. I never thought that different types of playtesters are helpful in various stages of the game development. And sometimes certain kinds of playtesters can be even harmful. Here's what I learned: