Hi!
My game is ready for "public" play testing now. I mean to make a few prototypes for friends and ask them to read the rules, learn it on their own, play it and get back to me. Seems good but it limits the number of play testers to the number of prototypes I can make.
So I had another idea – making the game available as P&P for people's enjoyment, but also for play testing purposes. The idea is to send people the files on request, not to put them on the web for everyone's direct download. In addition to getting feedback this would also serve to make my game known to the public, and create some knowledge it on the web which may be useful for the crowd funding that will probably be coming. My friend argues against doing this, saying that stores and retailers may be hesitant to buy the game if it's been available as print and play. Does he have a point? What are the odds that people will even bother to print and play a game which isn't finished yet? (It is finished to the point that it can be played and definitely enjoyed, but some balancing issues may still need improvement.)
Some feedback on how to do this would be appreciated.
I guess that's a good point. The final artwork isn't done yet so that part won't be included in the P&P version anyway.