How to playtest a game

Every developer's instinct is to explain: "you press E to grab", "that door opens later". Each explanation hides a problem players will have at home, where you are not there to explain. A playtest works when you say nothing and write everything down.

1. Prepare the build: the part you want feedback on, a fresh save, no debug overlays.
2. Give one goal: "play until you want to stop" or "try to reach the boss". No tutorial beyond the game's own.
3. Ask them to think aloud, if they are comfortable.
4. Watch and note: time stamps where they hesitate, die, misread, smile, or stop.
5. Ask after, not during: a few open questions.
6. Thank them, and do not argue with anything they say.

A useful starting point from usability research is about five per round: the first few testers reveal most of the big problems, and later ones mostly repeat them. So run small rounds, fix what you saw, and test again with new people, rather than one large round.

• Where they look first on each screen.
• What they try that the game does not support.
• The moment they stop reading text.
• How long until the first fun moment.
• When they put the controller down.

For a multiplayer game, test with groups who already play together and groups who do not; the problems differ. Record each player's view if you can. With friends, remove the social pressure: give them the build to play alone, ask for written answers, and promise that harsh notes are the useful ones. Then find strangers.

Flockbay's AI play-tests every change to your game itself, running it and reading errors, before people ever see it. For people, its playtest links send a build to testers through the free Flockbay Playtest app, and their crashes, errors, frame times, play time and bug reports come back to the chat, with a clip when the tester allows it (Windows). Playtest links are free in beta until 1 December 2026.