Hi all! I hope everyone is having a good day!
We're getting ready to so blind playtesting so we need to look for playtesters, and send them a PNP version of our game (with placeholder art since the full art isn't done yet). I am wondering how you all found your playtesters and, if you sent them PNP files, what you used to send them the files?
We know about Google Drive and e-mail, of course. Is there a preference that most playtesters use to download files?
Any advice is welcome and appreciated!
Thank you!
Finding playtesters for the blind playtest phase is one of the harder tasks that designers face. You should read the great information compiled by Gabe from the BGDL here:
http://www.boardgamedesignlab.com/playtesting/#finding
After that getting involved with local game stores for game nights and board gaming groups in your area is also a great starting place. Going to conventions that are just for games that are yet to be published is more expensive but might be worth it from the talk I hear coming from the events like:
http://unpub.net/
Nothing works quite as good as networking with others and falling in with the right crowds. But as questccg pointed out there are services that are worth the money by all accounts.
The Game Crafter has a review service that is focused more on the rules of the game that is also worth checking out:
http://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/145-sanity-tests
I hope you find a good diverse local game group as that is one of the best options. Just remember to watch them play rather than play with them... that is after all the blind part. You lose most of the needed feedback if you teach them the game.
But as noted above it is better to send a copy of the game to one person who has a game group that will play it, rather than just post a print-n-play and hope for feeback... I have done that one myself... just the other day in fact...
We are all still learning and that is a wonderful part of this journey.
@BHFuturist
Thanks for the wonderful insight! We're looking at meetup.com to find local game groups! Are there any better websites to find local game groups that you can recommend?
With physical prototypes, I'm a little weary about printing without the full art - which isn't done quite yet - as we don't actually own the rights to the placeholder images (they're creative commons license but still..). Perhaps I might be jumping the gun a little and should have everything finished and presentable before sending out copies to playtest. It's just so easy to get excited and want to share!
I will probably put out a PNP with the placeholder images anyway just to see what might come out of it. It couldn't hurt. But I definitely plan to send out copies to do further playtesting once the art is finished. :)