作者：Vin St. John

游戏开发过程中最重要的一大元素便是游戏测试。当你看到工作室以外的人坐下并开始玩你的游戏，你便能够更好地理解游戏是否容易被理解，是否可行，其机制是否吸引人等等。这些都是你在正式发行游戏前需要回答的问题。因此，通过游戏测试而收集数据能够有效地缓解风险，并提供给游戏更大的成功机会。

但是很多时候游戏测试也会出错，所以我们必须创造一个有效的测试过程，并随着时间的发展而不断进行完善。在Arkadium，我们的测试过程便是结合游戏设计与市场营销，同时也会邀请玩家来到我们的工作室。我认为我们在过去的一些实践也将给其它团队带来帮助，所以我将在此总结5大游戏测试诀窍。

playtesting(from gamespotcdn.net)

1.聘请你的目标玩家

在设计游戏测试时，你需要明确游戏的目标玩家类型。即使你的游戏能够吸引大批玩家，你也不能“面向所有人而设计游戏”。我们发现面向目标用户设定人物角色非常有帮助，如“Jane，年龄在25至34岁之间，拥有一台iPhone”，并尝试着去聘请符合这一描述的玩家。

我们在招聘时会考虑一些问题，如：

我们的目标用户是属于哪一年龄群体？

我们的目标用户主要是男性还是女性，或者男女比例较为平均？

我们的游戏瞄准了怎样的设备或平台？（游戏邦注：如果应聘者从未在这些平台上玩过游戏就可以直接忽略掉）。

游戏是否能够获得来自玩家的一些先验知识？

最后一点总是最重要的。如果你正在开发一款大受欢迎的第一人称射击游戏的续集，你便可以假设大多数玩家都玩过之前的游戏，或者类似的第一人称射击游戏。如此你便能够聘请那些熟悉基本的第一人称射击游戏的测试者，并征求一些独特的反馈信息。如果你是面向休闲玩家开发游戏，你的要求便是不同的。有时候我们也发现让那些从未玩过之前游戏的玩家去测试游戏的必要性，特别是在测试游戏教程，或者当游戏是面向更加休闲的玩家时。

每次当我们在进行游戏测试时，我们总是希望能够邀请一些全新的测试者（之前从未测试过我们的游戏）。这能保证他们以全新的视角提供给我们最有效的反馈，不过我们也会邀请一些之前的玩家去测试新游戏。

我们同样也设定了一个政策，即不能让好友或雇员去测试游戏。尽管在紧要关头他们的反馈也是非常有价值的，不过我们也发现，当测试者发现他们所熟知的人参与了游戏制作时，他们便会对游戏产生一定的亲切感，从而不能给出最公正的反馈。

当然了，寻找并聘请符合目标任务角色的测试者非常困难。在线社区（例如一些与游戏相关的社区）中有许多玩家想要想要访问你们的公司，并提供相关反馈。虽然你的忠实玩家很乐意提供帮助，但是他们也比其他玩家更了解你的游戏（很难以新手的姿态提供反馈）。

如果你只能从一些忠实用户身上收集反馈，你便不可能了解到新手玩家在第一个关卡中将会遇到什么问题，而是只能听到第十个关卡有多好玩之类的反馈。我们通过在Craigslist，FindFocusGroups.com以及Meetup.com等网站发布招聘信息而吸引了更多游戏测试者。

2.在测试前检验你的测试

在测试者到来之前，留出一些时间让团队成员亲自进行测试。检验游戏测试是否能够顺利运行，提早解决任何麻烦。

当测试者一进门便开始测试玩家体验。热情欢迎这些测试者们。每个小细节对于创造最佳游戏体验都非常重要。

也许你拥有最先进的可用性实验室以及各种小点心，但是如果大楼的前门是紧闭着，这些也都无济于事。你的技术是否可行？检查你的扬声器，鼠标，键盘以及网络。你肯定不希望因为自己忘了安装某一插件而在测试中途呼叫IT的帮忙。

向所有测试者简要介绍相关内容。就像在Arkadium，我们整个团队都会参与到游戏测试中，并向每位测试者简要介绍测试的目标，我们希望从中了解到什么，以及我们所使用的方法等。

3.消除压力

对于一些游戏开发者来说，游戏测试还是一种新理念；而对于一般人而言，这更是完全陌生的内容。你的测试者可能不知道你的期望是什么，而这种不确定性将对测试结果带来负面影响。你需要让测试者放松心态，如此他们才能专注地玩游戏，你也才能获得更有效的反馈信息。

确保在测试过程中，主持者能与测试者保持分开。我们需要让玩家知道，是他们在测试游戏，而不是我们自己，并以此找到任何让他们感到困惑的内容，从而才能有效地完善游戏。我们不希望玩家因为害怕而未能给出诚实的反馈，所以我们始终都强调自己只是观察者而非设计师，并希望在此听到任何批评意见。

我们的观察者只会静静地坐着，不会干预玩家的任何游戏行为。同时我们还发现，鼓励测试者在游戏过程中自言自语也是一种很棒的做法，因为这能帮助我们更好地理解他们的观点。

（为团队中的其他成员）记录下测试过程对于之后的研究很有帮助。因为大多数人都不习惯在记录者和摄影机面前玩游戏，所以我们必须让玩家能够放松心态，并向测试者解释他们的测试对我们来说多有帮助。玩家在进入我们的工作室前可能都是一头雾水，但是在离开时都清楚什么是游戏测试，以及我们为何会组织这样的测试。

4.调查问卷

在玩家结束游戏后你总是想要问他们一些问题。事先想好这些问题，并以调查问卷的形式呈现出来，从而确保你能够从每个测试者手中获得同一组数据。如果你在后来又想出一些问题，你也可以在他们完成调查问卷后进行提问。

一份精心措辞且高度集中的调查能够让你更有效地与团队成员分享测试结果。集中于任何与测试目标直接相关的问题。比起像“教程是否让你们感到困惑”等问题，“请描述出游戏中的绿色按钮有什么功效”等能够测试玩家理解的问题更加有效。

如果测试者是第一次接触你们的游戏或这类型游戏，他们可能对那些你们认为理所当然的术语或惯例并不熟悉，这时候你们便需要在问题中使用简单的描述性术语进行表达。

我们的调查中还总包含一些与玩家个人信息相关的问题，如“你们上个月玩过什么游戏？”从而帮助我们进一步了解玩家的喜好。除此之外，每道选择题下还都留出一个空间，让玩家们可以在此进行解释。

5.总体分析

测试结束时，你将获得来自不同测试者与观察者的调查结果和记录。快速编辑这些数据并与所有团队成员进行分享，并且不需要提供任何分析或结论。

你们必须基于整体进行分析，并着手处理综合数据——你的游戏设计师也许注意到一名玩家认为游戏太过简单，但并不是所有人都这么想的。如果其他玩家都表示游戏太难，你便会知道“太简单”并不是整体趋势。如果你愿意的话也可以在之后从新采纳这一测试者的反馈，将其当成一个特殊案例。一开始便基于整体去分析数据能够保证整个团队从完整的测试中获益。

在完成数据编译后，不要就此忽视它！明确玩家所提出的问题，并优先列出下一步该采取什么行动。你在游戏测试过程中所收集到的数据（包含玩家的情感状态以及那些不能成功点击按钮的情况等）能够帮助你得出有效的结论并明确之后的任务。如果你所获得的数据并不清楚，你也可以考虑回顾测试结构，或进行第二次调查。

这些都是我们在Arkadium的纽约总部所使用的方法，并且帮助我们成功完成了多次游戏测试。当然了，我们也不断在完善测试过程，同时还需要强调的是，有些适合我们的方法不一定适合其它工作室。

（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）

Best Practices: Five Tips for Better Playtesting

by Vin St. John

One of the most important elements in the lifecycle of game development is playtesting. When you see someone from outside the studio actually sit down and play your game, you’re able to better understand whether your game is accessible, usable, and if its mechanics are actually appealing. These are not questions that you want to answer after your game is released to the public. Therefore, data collected from playtesting can be an invaluable tool for mitigating risk and giving your game its best chance at success.

However, there are many ways that playtesting can go wrong, so it’s important to establish a process that you’re confident in, and to improve it over time. At Arkadium, our playtesting process is a collaboration between game design and marketing, and typically involves inviting players to our office. We believe that the best practices we’ve identified over time may be helpful to your team as well, so we’ve boiled them down to these five tips for better playtesting.

1. Recruit Your Target Player

When designing your playtest, you should be keenly familiar with the type of player your game is for. While your game may appeal to a larger audience, it’s a mistake to “design for all.” We find it helpful to identify personas for our target audience — for example, “Jane, 25-34 years old, owns an iPhone” — and try to recruit players who closely match that description.

Some questions we always consider when recruiting are:

How old is our intended audience?

Is the intended audience predominantly male, female, or split?

What device or platform is our game targeting? (Don’t recruit players if they’ve never played a game on that platform before).

Does your game assume any prior knowledge from the player?

The last point is often the most important. If you’re developing a sequel to a popular first-person shooter (FPS), you might assume that most of your players have played the first game, or perhaps a similar FPS. In this case, it would make sense to recruit playtesters who are already familiar with the basics of FPS games, and solicit feedback on the elements that are unique to your game. If you’re developing for a casual audience, however, you may actually want the opposite. We often find that it’s imperative to test our game with players who have never played a game’s predecessors, especially when testing the game’s tutorial or a game that’s meant for more casual players.

Every time we have a playtest, we always strive to have some new playtesters who have never tried out our game before. This guarantees we have a fresh set of eyes providing feedback every time, even if we also invite returning players to playtest something new.

We also have a policy against recruiting friends of our employees for playtesting. While their feedback can be very valuable in a pinch, we find that when they know someone personally who has worked on the game, people have a tendency to want to love it more than they would otherwise, which can drastically skew the data.

Of course, it can be difficult to find and recruit playtesters who closely match your target persona. There are likely online communities — some related to your game, for instance — that are full of players who would love a chance to visit your office and provide you with feedback. However, while your biggest fans will be eager to help, they tend to be more informed and more engaged with your games than the average player.

If you only collect feedback from your biggest fans, you’re much less likely to hear about the problems that new players face on Level 1, and much more likely to hear about how great Level 10 is. We supplement our pool of playtesters by recruiting on sites like Craigslist, FindFocusGroups.com, and Meetup.com.

2. Test Your Test Before You Test!

Before your testers arrive, set aside some time for everyone on your team involved in the playtest to do a run through. Testing your playtest will ensure things run as smoothly as possible, by ironing out the kinks ahead of time and getting the whole team on the same page.

Test your player’s experience from the moment they enter your door. Your playtesters should be greeted by someone when they enter or find a sign-in sheet. Every detail matters to create a comfortable experience.

You may have a state-of-the-art usability lab and great refreshments, but it won’t matter if the building’s front door is locked! Is all of your technology working? Check your speakers, mouse, keyboard and internet. You don’t want to have to call IT during a playtest because you forgot to install a plugin that your game requires to run.

Brief all playtesting helpers on your process. At Arkadium, the whole team can get involved in playtesting. Everybody involved in the process is briefed that day on the goals of this playtest, what we hope to learn and the process we’re using.

3. Take the Pressure Off

The concept of playtesting is still new to some game developers; for the average human being, it is completely foreign. Your playtesters may be unsure of what to expect, and that uncertainty can have a negative effect on your test results. Make your playtesters comfortable so they can focus on playing your game and you’ll get much better feedback.

Be sure to tell your moderators to segregate themselves from the game during the test. We assure players, “We’re testing the game, not you,” and that we are hoping to find areas where they struggle or get confused, because we want to improve the game. We don’t want our players to be afraid of giving honest (negative) feedback, so we always stress that we are observers, not designers, and are here to listen to any and all criticisms.

Our observers sit back and let the playtester play the game with very little interference. However, we find it helpful to encourage the playtester to think out loud during their experience, to help us understand their point of view.

Recording the test for the rest of the game’s team to watch later is also helpful. Because most people don’t play video games in front of a note taker and a video camera, we find it’s important to put a player’s mind at ease about these elements and explain to them why they are helpful. Players usually enter our office not knowing what to expect, but leave understanding what a playtest is and why we conduct them.

4. Rock the Survey

You’ll almost always want to ask your players some questions after they’re done playing. Try to predict these questions ahead of time and put them in survey form so that you collect the same set of data for every playtester. If you have any spontaneous follow-up questions, you can ask them when they’re done taking the survey.

A carefully worded, highly focused survey can make sharing your playtest results with the team much easier. Focus on questions that directly address the goals of your playtest. Leading questions like “Was the tutorial confusing?” are much less helpful than questions that test a player’s knowledge, like “Please describe what the green button does in this game.”

If your playtesters are newcomers to your game or genre, they are probably unfamiliar with many of the terms and conventions that your team may take for granted — plan accordingly by using plain, descriptive terms in your questions whenever possible.

Our surveys always include some basic player profile questions like “What games have you been playing in the last month?” to give us context. In addition, every multiple-choice question includes an optional space for written explanation.

5. Analyze in Aggregate?

After a playtest, you’re going to have survey results and notes from many different playtesters and observers. Compile that data quickly and share it with your team in aggregate, without offering analysis or drawing conclusions.

Analyze the results as a group, and start on the aggregate data — your game designer may have seen one player who thought the game was too easy, but is that what everyone else saw? If all the other players said the game was difficult then you know that “too easy” is not a trend. If you like you can still return to that playtester’s feedback afterward and address it as a special case. Analyzing your data in aggregate first will guarantee that your entire team benefits from the full playtest.

Once you’ve got your data compiled, don’t just forget about it! Identify the issues that your playtest has brought to light and prioritize your next steps. The data you collect during your playtest — which can include anything from the player’s emotional state, to the number of failed attempts to click a button — should always help you draw conclusions and come away with action items for your team. If your data is inconclusive, consider revisiting the structure of your playtest and survey for next time.

These are the best practices we’ve developed at Arkadium’s New York headquarters, and they have helped us implement recurring playtesting in a consistent and reliable way. Of course, we’re always improving our process, and what works well for us might not suit the needs of your studio. If you find any of these tips helpful, or have a different way of doing things, let us know in the comments section.(source:gamasutra)