What nuggets of wisdom would you give to a first time person seeking play testing?

The biggest thing is don't get offended or defensive when people point out problems. This game is probably like your baby, and it can be painful when people say you have an ugly baby. But you'll be much better off if you listen to criticism objectively.

This absolutely!

"Thank you for your feedback, it's most helpful and I'll be taking it all into consideration" is probably the best response to any feedback, good or bad.

Thanks for the link. I'm definitely going to use that in the next couple weeks for some blind play tests.

^This a thousand times over^

This also leads into what I was going to say. Player's can tell how they feel, but they can't always tell you what they want.

Playtesters often want to help and they'll sometime try beyond their means.

They'll offer suggestions they've seen in other games they THINK will improve it without understanding the mechanic, the implications of the change, or even what they actually want to happen.

Listen to what they say and reflect on it. Make sure the decision you make are actually hitting the problems they cited.

Keep an open mind, listen to everything... but at the end of the day you have to be the captain.

- - -

Oh one more thing. Enjoy it.

Playtesters are awesome people and it's helps to remind yourself of that from time to time.

A couple of extra things I keep an eye out for are noting when players are in downtime, and whenever the players are checking the rules (or asking me questions if I'm doing an open playtest).

Downtime isn't all bad - it's helpful to have time to strategise between turns. But if you find players are eg playing on their phones (tbh I greatly prefer players that will do that rather than "be polite" and feign interest) then you've got boring downtime rather than strategising downtime.

If I find I keep needing to explain a particular rule or players often can't find it easily in the rulebook, that's something that needs extra attention.

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve from the playtest. So, I guess, that might be my main advice: know what the objective of a playtest is and adjust the way you conduct things to support that. You might be testing the general flow of the game, looking at how a new rule affects play, trying to identify your core engagement if you haven't already, seeing if someone can break the game, and so on.

Personally, I find it nice to have written feedback, but the most useful playtests I have had have involved just watching and writing notes on how players behave. Are there points when they seem to lose focus or disengage? Where do they get confused? Do they get rules wrong? Are they laughing, frowning, bantering, trash talking, negotiating, etc? Is the quiet player doing better than that chatty player? Who checks their phone? And so on. I can usually get so much insight into the game this way before we even start to discuss the game.

The feedback above is solid, so I'll take a different direction. Many times it's hard enough getting play testers much less asking them to write things down. Reduce the friction between play and feedback. Examples:

• In a short game, have the players verbalise what they're thinking while they are playing. Particularly the fun, or the frustrating parts. Or when it's not clear what the good choices are.
• In the post-game debrief of a game in early testing, ask simple questions. "What were the most fun moments for you?" "Why were those fun?" "What were the most frustrating, or least fun, moments? Why?"

When you're recording feedback, take shorthand notes that ask questions you can answer later. Don't look for suggestions on things to fix problems yet - just identify them.

Later, make a log of these questions, and how you are answering them in the next iteration.

Just a thought on the playtest form: the Playtest UK organisers usually have a supply of generic feedback forms that are pretty good and should be available to you for the sessions at UKGE, so that should be covered.

Of course, if there are specific things you want covered, it might be worth you bringing your own forms along.

Hope I'll get to meet you at Expo...

Rob

Questionnaires are great, especially if you're trying to glean insight about specific aspects of your game. But before you bombard them with questions, let them tell you all of their thoughts, stream of consciousness-style. Remember: this was probably the first time these people ever played your game and they have a lot of opinions. Don't stifle that. It'll open up further dialogue from the playtesters.

Also, keep track of time. Time per turn, time per game. I find it helpful to contrast how long the fist game is compared to the second with the same testers - gives insight into how dense the games rules are initially and how quickly all the mechanics "click" into place on the next run through.