Playtesting questions to ask, and the ones to avoid
2 min read
By Eduardo Orellana ·
Ask about what happened, not about what the player thinks you want to hear. Good playtesting questions: What were you trying to do? What was confusing? When did you want to stop, and why? What was the best moment? How would you describe this game to a friend? Would you keep playing? Avoid leading questions ("Did you like the jump?"), hypotheticals ("Would you buy it?") and design requests ("What should I add?"), which invite polite or invented answers.
Players are good witnesses and bad designers
A tester can tell you exactly where they got lost. Asked how to fix it, they invent something. So the questions that work ask what happened and how it felt; the solutions are yours.
Questions to ask
- What were you trying to do?
- What was confusing, or felt unfair?
- When did you want to stop playing? Why?
- What was the best moment?
- What did you expect to happen that did not?
- How would you describe this game to a friend?
- Would you keep playing if you could? What would make you?
Questions to avoid
- Leading: "Did you like the new jump?" invites yes.
- Hypothetical: "Would you buy this?" People are poor at predicting what they would pay for.
- Design requests: "What feature should I add?" gets wish lists, not insight.
- Double questions: "Was it fun and clear?" gets one answer to two questions.
Scales, sparingly
A few 1-to-5 ratings (fun, difficulty, clarity) let you compare rounds, but only alongside the open questions that explain them. Keep the form short; tired testers write less.
Where Flockbay fits
Flockbay's playtests bring back what testers did as well as what they say: errors, crashes, frame times, play time and their input by action, so you can compare their answers with their play. Playtest links are free in beta until 1 December 2026.