Why is it so important to try and find a diverse group of play testers?

Disclaimer: This DevLog is intended to help anyone, who is in a similar situation we are in at the moment. Everyone has to make their own decisions. This merely is our own honest view and opinion, based on our experience. We would love to hear from you, what you think about it all. We wish you all the success and fun you deserve with the development and release of your game! eXplore Studio

In game development, we always have to put ourselves in question and be aware of how players actually approach our game, how they play it. They do not have years of experience working on our game, they do not know it by heart, inside out, like we do. On the other hand, they are quite likely to see things about our game or experience difficulties, where we no longer see them, where we have blind spots. So whenever we are in the great position to receive honest and constructive feedback from people who take the time to play our game, this is a fantastic opportunity for us to learn about our game and how we have to continue improving it. This is important all along the development of our game, not just in the end before releasing it.

Using such opportunities to learn and influence our work, it is also important to make sure that we have a lot of diversity among our play testers. This is so for several reasons: The more our play testers look at our game from different angles, the more likely it is that we will have more comprehensive and balanced feedback. Diverse testers will bring different viewpoints, backgrounds, and preferences. This will give us feedback on a broader spectrum of player experiences. Furthermore, since games resonate globally, transcending cultural boundaries, diverse testers will help identify potential cultural insensitivities and enable us to ensure inclusivity. Also, by including players who represent the game’s intended audience(s), we can collect valuable insights that help us to appeal to a wider range of potential players. In short, diverse playtesting leads to precious feedback!

However, there are some pitfalls we must try to avoid: Let us always be humble and really take the feedback in, seriously considering it, without jumping to a defensive mode. This is not about us having to justify our work, it is about learning from what our potential customers may think about our game, how they may experience it, and therefore how we can get it even better. This is sometimes not easy, because of course we are emotionally attached to our game. It can even feel very personal and painful to us, when we receive feedback. But it is about improving the game, not about our ego. We have to do our best to prioritise learning over our personal attachment to the game as it is. Moreover, we should try to prepare play test campaigns well and focus on specific aspects of the game we want to address, not just aimlessly play test the game. If we receive feedback, let us always make use of it, not ignoring it because we do not like it.

To summarise, well prepared, effective, and iterative playtesting throughout the game development with a diverse group of honest play testers leads to better games!