作者：Ian Schreiber

作为设计师，懂得测试自己的作品很重要。但给他人创造测试条件亦必不可少，这样你就能够从这些宝贵时间中收获有用信息。（请点击此处阅读本系列第1、第2、第3、第4、第5、第6、第7、第8、第9、第10、第11、第12、第14、第15、第16、第17、第18课程内容）

游戏测试还有另外一面：懂得测试他人的游戏，提供高质量的反馈信息。这本身就是项技能，而且非常罕见。稀缺性令此技能变得弥足珍贵。我们今天的话题是：懂得批判分析设计师同伴的半成品。

时间交换机制

非数字游戏设计师年度大会Protospiel鼓励参与者腾出尽可能多的测试时间。若原型的体验和讨论需要2个小时，那你就需要4个玩家（游戏邦注：除你自己外），每人平均需投入8小时；作为此测试的交换条件，你得腾出8小时测试其他人的原型。此机制有效避免出现测试人员匮乏的情况，促使大家互相尊重彼此的时间。

注意这意味着你将投入更多时间测试他人的作品。可以这么说，从时间分配的差异度来看，成为优秀测试者要比设计自己的作品重要。

反复更新内容需消耗他人大量时间，因此要尊重你的测试人员。

若你基于团队运作，携手其他设计师展开游戏测试就相对简单得多，因为这只需要同你的设计师伙伴碰面。记住：你在他人作品中投入的时间要比在自己的作品多。

独立测试之后的操作

在项目此阶段，游戏的可玩模型应已成形，再来就是系列规则。开发者要自己测试至少1次，找出所有显著问题，更新设计。开发者应不断进行调整，直到自己能够完整体验整款游戏，无需做出较大改变。

到达此阶段后，你的目标就会从“运作内容”转变成“确保核心机制富有趣味”。谁是协助开发者实现此目标的最佳测试人员？

常规玩家（例如，好友和家人，或者甚至是陌生人）在此的作用非常有限。通过观察他们，你就能够判断他们是否玩得愉快，你的作品是否达到设计目标。但若游戏存在问题，玩家就无法向你提供有用信息，他们所呈现的反馈无非就是“好极了”或“糟透了”。此时作为设计师的你就需要发现和解决问题。因此，设计师可以在必要时候借助常规玩家，但他们的作用非常有限。

更好的方式是携手其游戏设计师进行测试。游戏设计师能够让你知晓游戏是否有趣，他们能够就所存在问题及如何调整提供自己的意见。你们随后可以进行精彩讨论，探讨这款游戏的设计，或是一般游戏设计。这些讨论非常重要，通过他们你的作品能够更快得到完善。

寻找设计师测试者

独立开发者可以在某些地方找到其他游戏设计师。

若你刚好在其他游戏公司任职过，那你定认识某些曾共事过的设计师。在这种情况下，寻找熟练测试者就非常简单。这里的难点是专业设计师通常忙于自己的工作，无法腾出时间帮你。你需要配合他们的时间。同时要提供某些有价值的东西作为交换。从根本来说，你其实是在寻求专业游戏设计顾问的帮助。你的同事也许有在别处兼职，每小时能挣40-250美元（游戏邦注：这取决于他们的经验和项目性质）。若他们免费为你腾时间，那么你将来务必也在他们的项目中付出同等的时间。至少你得心存感恩。

如果你不认识任何专业设计师怎么办？联系你的朋友，安排近期碰面，商讨游戏测试。让他们完整体验你的所有作品。

若你没什么朋友，最好浏览论坛。论坛底部有个专门的“本地社区”，这样你就能够找到同地区的其他人士。若你尚未注册论坛，那就立即注册（游戏邦注：通过论坛安排折中碰面地点）。这也许会变成长久专业合作关系。

若你无法从论坛上找到同地区的其他人士，最后一招就是将你的作品发布到网站上，在论坛上征求测试人员。其他设计师也许也面临相同困境。同样，若他人愿意查看你的作品，提供反馈信息，你也要给予相同反馈，测试他们的作品。当你以此形式测试他人作品时，确保向其说明如何组装可玩模型。以此形式进行游戏测试的最简单方式是单独测试彼此的作品。另一选择就是网上碰面，即时进行远程体验。

成为杰出设计师

当他人测试你的作品时，请牢记下面几点：

* 你的作品并不完美。若游戏非常完美，你就无需进行测试。

* 游戏定存在问题。测试目的是发现和消除这些问题。若你进行测试只是要确定游戏完美无瑕，那你就是浪费自己和他人的时间。

* 通过小型测试发现问题要比在游戏发行后才发现漏洞好很多。

* 若某测试者在你的游戏中发现较大问题，这将是你收获的最好礼物。不要怀有敌意或存在抵制情绪；而是应该心存感激。

* 当测试者发现漏洞时，你的职责不是替游戏辩护或陈述测试者的错误之处。首先，即使测试者“错了”，其他玩家也许也会犯相同“错误”。其次，测试者也许是对的——他们以全新视角查看你的游戏，通常不会存在什么偏见。

* 若测试者发现问题，正确的做法应是在笔记本中将问题记下，然后同测试者讨论你的目标，这样你就知道如何在坚持目标的前提下做出相应调整。

* 不是所有玩家都表现得体。有时他们会发表某些关于游戏的可憎言论。有时他们会嘲弄你的游戏，或因某设计问题而斥责你。记住无论他们如何表达，这些内容仍是非常有用的信息。

* 听到“你的游戏糟透了，这是我玩过最糟糕的游戏，或更进一步，你糟透了，你简直就是多余之人”这样的言论，而依然能够真诚地答道：“你帮我发现游戏存在的某些糟糕漏洞，非常感谢”，这需要设计师境界高深。让自己在现实生活中变成意志坚强之人，能够互相交换角色，应该是游戏设计师的长期目标之一。你无需立即做到这点。我也没做到。但我之前曾看到某杰出设计师就是以这种姿态和别人相互测试游戏，这令我意识到自己还有很长的路要走。

进行优质的游戏测试

若你希望测试者未来能够继续帮你测试游戏，你就得尽量尊重他们的时间。下面是些你需要考虑的事项：

* 在向其他玩家呈现游戏时，确保自己清楚把握规则，这样你无需进行查阅。试着对着镜子向自己解释所有规则，确保自己能够做到这点。这能够节省时间（游戏邦注：这样你只需花几分钟而非半小时就能将规则解释清楚）。

* 若你已知晓其中存在问题，或若你有除“制作有趣游戏”外的特定游戏目标，预先告知测试者。这将帮助你们更明确地把握潜在解决方案。

* 尽快结束游戏测试。若经过半小时体验你就已收集到所有潜在有用信息，那么就此打住。记住进行测试的目的是发现问题，而不是“体验游戏”。若你无法从中发现问题，那你就是浪费大家的时间。

* 携带你的测试手册，做好笔记。你很容易忘记当时所发生的情况，不论当时你的测试结果多么明显，所以确保自己记下所有你不想遗漏的信息。

成为杰出测试者

测试他人作品时，有几点需铭记于心：

* 进行测试时，保证自己全心对待设计师和游戏。你定也希望他人能够以此态度对待你的游戏。

* 不要在测试中途离开。这除很不礼貌外，还可能让你错过某些结果。至少，若你知道自己时间有限，或中途需要离开，预先告知他人，这样他们就能够采取相应对策。

* 尽可能详尽。不要说游戏“有趣”或“无聊”，试着分析其中原因。此时你需有游戏背景方能给出有意义的反馈信息。充分利用你的设计技能！

* 体验完游戏后，腾出时间同其他测试者和设计师讨论。探讨自己的体验过程及其同游戏机制的关系。

* 记住进行游戏测试的目的很多。查看游戏是否有趣？期望获胜？发现规则存在的漏洞？我们会以相应方式进行体验。我们习惯以自己的风格体验游戏，这令我们容易忘记其实还有其他体验方式。确保牢记游戏测试的目标。

* 保持有礼貌。你可以犀利批评游戏，但不要对设计师进行人身攻击。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Level 13: Playing With Designers

As the designer, it is an important skill to be able to playtest your own creations (which you’ve already done at least once). It is also important to be able to set up conditions for other people to playtest your games, so that you can get useful information from the precious time you have (which we will cover over the next week).

There is another side to playtesting: the ability to playtest other people’s games and provide quality feedback. This is a skill in and of itself, and a surprisingly rare one to find. This scarcity makes it a valuable skill. Personally, I have received many freelance opportunities through colleagues, simply because they know that I am good at finding the flaws in their designs. This is what we cover today: the ability to critically analyze a fellow designer’s work-in-progress.

Readings

Read the following: “Giving Criticism – the good, the bad, and the ugly!”

This may not be a class on giving constructive criticism, but it is something I’m going to ask everyone to be doing. Far too often in classes, students are asked to give peer feedback and review, and yet not given the tools to do so in a useful way. I think many teachers either take the stance that simply giving feedback enough times will make people better at it (“practice makes perfect”) or else that feedback techniques should be taught in some other class (“I can’t waste precious class time on that”).

This article may not be particularly comprehensive, but it is short, and after doing a Google search for “constructive criticism” it is the one that I found that fits best with the advice I give in my classes.

The Time Barter System

At Protospiel, an annual gathering of non-digital game designers, participants are encouraged to give as much playtesting time as they take. For example, if your prototype takes two hours of play and discussion and it requires four players (other than yourself), a single playtest consumes eight person-hours of time; in exchange for that playtest, you are then expected to playtest other people’s prototypes for eight hours of your own time. This system prevents there from being an extreme shortage (or surplus) of testers relative to games, and it gives people incentive to respect each other’s time.

Notice that this means you tend to spend far more time playing other people’s games than you do playing your own. You could even say that, given the time difference, the ability to be a good playtester is more important than being able to design your own games.

Keep this in mind as you proceed through the rest of this course. You will be consuming large amounts of other people’s time as you iterate through your own designs. Accordingly, treat your testers with respect. (It wouldn’t be out of the question to give them food or some other compensation, as well, if it is in your means to provide.)

If you are in a group, playtesting with other designers should be relatively easy. Just meet up with your fellow designers. Keep in mind that you should be giving more of your time to other people’s games than your own.

Next Steps After Solo Testing

At this point in the project, you should have a playable prototype of your game, and a set of rules. You should have playtested on your own at least once, identified any really obvious problems, and iterated on your design. You should continue to do this until your design is at a point where you are confident that you can play all the way through without having to make major changes.

Once you reach that point, your goal shifts from “make this game work” to “make sure the core mechanics are fun” (or whatever your design goal happens to be, if not “fun”). Who would make the best playtesters to help with this?

Normal players (such as friends and family, or even complete strangers) are marginally useful here. By watching them, you can determine if they are having a good time and if your game is meeting its design goals. However, if there is a problem, a typical gamer will not be able to give you useful feedback other than “it’s great” or “it sucks.” It will be up to you as the designer to identify and fix the problems. Therefore, normal testers can be used if necessary, but their usefulness is limited.

Far better is to playtest with other game designers. Game designers can also let you know if the game is fun, and they can offer suggestions on where the problem points are and what can be changed to make your game better. You can often have wonderful discussion following the play of the game, on the design of your game and sometimes on game design in general. These kinds of discussions are important, and your game can get better much faster with them.

Finding Designer Playtesters

There are a few places to find other game designers.

If you are lucky enough to already work at a game company (or know someone who does), you probably already know some designers who you work with regularly. In this case, finding skilled testers is the easy part. The difficulty is that professional designers are often busy with work, and simply do not have the time to help you. You must work around their schedules. Also be prepared to offer something of value in exchange. You are essentially asking for a professional game design consult. Your colleague could spend the same amount of time freelancing and make anywhere from US$40 to $250 an hour, depending on their experience and the nature of the project. (I get those figures from personal experience and what I can piece together from what my colleagues say on the subject.) If you are asking for their time for free, be prepared to give a comparable amount of your own time to their projects in the future. At least be prepared to be extremely grateful.

What if you don’t know any professional designers? Perhaps you signed up for this course in a group with your friends. This is where that group of yours will come in handy. Get in touch with your friends, and arrange a time to meet in the near future for a playtest session. Play through each of your games.

If you took this course alone and don’t know anyone else, the next best thing is to check the forums. The bottom section of forums, “Local Communities,” was set up specifically so that you could find other people in your local area. If you are not yet registered on the forums (but you did sign up for the course ahead of time), do that now – just be sure to sign up with the same email address that you registered with for the course (or at least drop enough clues in your forum account info to let me figure it out on my own). Arrange through the forums to meet at a neutral location. Who knows, this may be the start of a long-term professional relationship.

If you’re having trouble finding others in your area on the forums, as a last resort, post your work on the course wiki and beg on the forums for playtesters. There may be other people in similar situations. Again, if others are willing to take a look at your work and provide feedback, return the favor and playtest their work. When playtesting another’s work in this way, be sure to give them instructions for assembling a playable prototype. The easiest way to playtest in this way is to solo test each others’ games. Another option is to arrange a meeting over the internet (using a chat tool such as IRC or Skype) and attempt to play remotely in real time (some games are easier to do in this way than others).

Being a Great Designer

As other people playtest your game, keep in mind the following:

* Your game is not perfect. If your game were perfect, you wouldn’t need to playtest.

* There will be problems. The goal of playtesting is to find and eliminate those problems. If all your playtest did was confirm that your game is perfect, you have just wasted your own time and everyone else’s.

* It is far better to identify problems in a small playtest, than for them to be found after the game is printed and ships to millions of players.

* If one of your playtesters finds a major problem in your game, they have given you a great gift. Do not be hostile or defensive; be gracious.

* When a problem is identified by a playtester, your goal is not to verbally defend your game or to explain why the playtester is wrong. First, even if your playtester is “wrong,” it probably means a lot of other players will also be “wrong” in the same way, and you can’t ship yourself in a game box in order to explain your Grand Vision to everyone. Second, the playtester is probably right – they are seeing your game through fresh eyes, and are more likely to have an unbiased view of the game.

* If your playtesters do identify problems, the correct response is to write the issue down in your notebook… and then discuss your design goals with the playtesters so that you can get some ideas of how to preserve your goals while changing the game.

* Not all people are tactful. Sometimes people will say things about your game (or even about you, personally) that are downright hateful. Sometimes people will make fun of your game, or will taunt or berate you for a problem with your design. Keep in mind that, no matter how it is delivered, this is still extremely useful content.

* It takes a strong person to hear a statement like “your game sucks, it is the worst game I’ve ever played, and by extension you suck and you are nothing better than a waste of space” and to genuinely reply: “You have just helped me identify some major flaws in my game. Thank you.” Getting to the point in your life where you are emotionally strong enough to have an exchange like this should be one of your long-term goals as a game designer. You do not have to be like this right now. I’m not. But I have seen an exchange like this before from a great designer, and it made me realize how far I have to go.

* If it sounds like I’m repeating myself here, it’s because I’ve seen this go horribly wrong so many times, that I think it is worth repeating.

Running a Great Playtest Session

If you want your playtesters to keep coming back for your future designs, be as respectful of their time as possible. Here are some things to consider:

* Before you show your game to other players, make sure the rules are fresh in your mind so that you do not need to look them up. Try explaining all of the rules to yourself in the mirror to make sure you can do it. This will save time, if it only takes you a couple minutes to explain rather than half an hour.

* If you already know there are problems (and you just don’t have the solutions) or if you have specific design goals other than “make a fun game,” let your playtesters know this up front. It will help them to be more aware of potential solutions.

* End your playtest as soon as you can. If you have received as much useful information as you are likely to after a half hour of play, stop there (even if the full game would last three hours). Remember that the purpose of the playtest is to identify problems, not to “play games.” If you’re not identifying problems, you are wasting everyone’s time.

* Bring your playtest notebook and take good notes. You will forget everything that takes place, no matter how obvious your playtest results seem at the time, so make sure you write down every piece of information that you don’t want to lose.

Being a Great Playtester

Here are some of the things you should keep in mind when testing other people’s games:

* When testing, give the designer and the game your undivided attention. You would want others to extend the same courtesy to your game, after all.

* Don’t leave in the middle of a test. Aside from being rude, it can throw off the results (not all games can gracefully handle it when a player leaves). At minimum, if you know you have limited time or that you may get called away in mid-game, let others know this up front so they can handle it accordingly.

* Be as detailed as possible. Don’t just say that the game is “fun” or “boring,” try to analyze why. You should have enough of a background at this point to give meaningful feedback. Make use of your design skills!

* Allow some time after the game for discussion with the other testers and the designer. Talk about your play experience, and how it was related to the mechanics.

* Remember that there are many possible playtest goals. Are you playing to see if the game is fun? Are you playing to win? Are you playing to find holes in the rules? Play accordingly. We are so used to playing games in our own personal style, that it can be difficult to remember that there are other ways to play. Keep the goals of the playtest in mind.

* Be polite. Attack the game mercilessly, but do not attack the designer.

Homeplay

Continue working on your game from last time. If your game is not already at the point where it is ready for playtesting with other designers, continue testing on your own until you are at that point.

You have two additional tasks.

First, before Thursday, August 13, noon GMT, arrange a playtest session with other designers. The session itself should take place on or before next Monday (August 20).

Second, playtest other people’s games. Keep track of the number of person-hours spent in the playtest of your own game (not including yourself), and give at least that many hours of your own time towards helping your fellow participants.

Feedback

Do you know of any great articles on giving constructive criticism, or playtesting games as a designer? Post them in the comments on this blog, or on Twitter with the #GDCU tag.（Source：gamedesignconcepts）