Confirmation bias and complexity blindness

For me, I make a note of pretty much all the feedback I get, but I do make a point of ignoring pretty much all of the positive spoken feedback. And I'm not going to ask "did you like the game?" or "what was your favourite part of the game?" very much.

The reason for this is that the most important feedback I can get is from simply watching the players. I can generally tell if they are bored, confused, annoyed, engaged, or having fun by watching how they behave.

When I'm asking questions, the main point is to find out what is bad about the game, what doesn't work, what is too complicated. I can usually figure most of that by watching, but asking for the problems sometimes helps.

So my defence against only seeing the good side of things is to actively look for the bad. Of course, this can get a bit depressing at times, and requires the development of a really thick skin, but it seems to work for me. And people seem to enjoy my games often enough for me to feel that it is worth carrying on.

As for sources of help, advice and information, good starting points include "The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design", which is a collection of fascinating essays edited (and contributed to) by Mike Selinker, and "Tabletop: Analog Game Design", a similarly broad collection edited by Greg Costikyan and Drew Davidson. The latter has the additional advantage of being downloadable as a free PDF or read online at http://press.etc.cmu.edu/content/tabletop-analog-game-design

You can also ask some indirect questions. This worked very well for me because I have such a small play tester base.

Even if they are positive to your game. You can always ask:
- What would you like to see added to this game?
Followed by:
- And why would you like to see this added to the game?

Often they will mention something that they aren't unhappy with at first glance. But they don't know themselves yet. After a couple of games, it might become too unpleasant to them for one reason or another. And thus it does need a change.

1) Watch them play. You'll find what needs to be done by watching.
2) Diversify the testers. I went to local board game meetups, conventions, game stores, wherever I could find strangers to play my game. It's long, arduous, and uncomfortable, but that's how I did it.

I take in all feedback. I ask as many questions as I can...even positive feedback, over time, can point out serious issues in your game. It happened with my game and it can certainly happen in yours.

But, as one that teaches game design myself, I understand the meaning of getting the best work done. Here's some advice: Don't worry about it too much. I explain this to my students in this manner: Your first project will always suck. It takes time, consistency, and work to get it right. Even when I teach players games, I let my players know if they screw up in the game, but I always respond that the first game is a learning game.

As far as books, I recommend A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster.

This isn't a career where you can just "get it" and you're fine. Being a good Game Designer takes time, and you have to allow that time to teach you.

For books, check out The Art of Game a Design by Jesse Schell. It's about video game design but a lot of the concepts are still relevant. He has cards, & a digital version, that has topic/questions to make you think about key aspects which I've found useful to make me consider stuff I may have overlooked in the initial rush.

Having a few open questions is what I've found useful so you can direct them towards what you want to know & then let them go. As others have said, watching them from a safe distance so they don't feel you staring at them gives good, subconscious, indicators of what they may be thinking or feeling. Also letting them do anonymous feedback forms can help. Maybe have the forms with some more questions & then a box they can put them into could help as they may be more open if they can say it & then leave before you find out who said what.

For play testers, I've found that going to open game nights at local game stores has helped & I'm trying to get in contact with gaming clubs at the local tertiary institutions. I've contacted the local primary school & taken some younger market games up to a lunch time game group they have & the kids were great. It was hard to pin down good feedback as they were hyper & everywhere at once, & the prototypes took a beating but overall I found it was worth the effort & I'll be going back again soon.