You've been heads-down building your game for months. The mechanics feel solid, the art is coming together, and you're finally ready to show it to someone other than your cat. It's time for your first playtest.
But here's where many indie developers stumble. They hand their build to a friend, watch them play for twenty minutes, ask "so what do you think?" and get back a well-meaning but useless "yeah, it's pretty cool."
Running a playtest that generates genuinely useful feedback is a skill—and like any skill, it can be learned. Here's how to do it right from the start.
When Is Your Game Ready for Playtesting?
The short answer: earlier than you think.
Many developers wait until their game is "almost done" before seeking feedback. This is a mistake. By that point, you're emotionally invested in decisions that might be fundamentally flawed, and major changes become painful or impossible.
Your game is ready for playtesting when it has a playable loop—something players can actually do, even if it's rough around the edges. A single level with placeholder art is enough. A core mechanic with no progression system is enough. The goal of early playtests isn't to validate your finished product; it's to validate your direction.
The rule of thumb: If you can explain the core experience you want feedback on, you're ready to test.
Finding Your First Playtesters
Your first instinct might be to ask friends and family. While they can be helpful for initial sanity checks, they come with a significant drawback: they care about your feelings more than they care about your game.
For meaningful feedback, you need playtesters who will be honest—ideally, people who match your target audience. Here's where to find them:
Game development communities. Subreddits like r/playmygame and r/indiegames have developers who understand the value of honest feedback and will reciprocate. Discord servers for game development are equally valuable.
Itch.io. Upload a free demo and mark it as "in development." Players who download games in this state expect rough edges and are often willing to share their thoughts.
Local game dev meetups. Other developers make excellent playtesters because they can articulate problems precisely and often suggest solutions.
Your existing audience. If you've been sharing development updates on social media, some followers will jump at the chance to play early. These are your most engaged potential players.
Playtesting platforms. Services dedicated to connecting developers with testers can provide structured feedback from real players.
Start small. Five to ten playtesters for your first round is plenty. You'll learn more from watching five people struggle with the same section than from a hundred survey responses.
What to Look For (Beyond What They Say)
Here's a truth that experienced developers learn: what players do matters more than what they say.
Players are notoriously bad at diagnosing why something feels wrong. They'll tell you the combat is too hard when the real problem is unclear feedback. They'll say they got bored when the actual issue is confusing level design that made them wander in circles.
When observing playtests, watch for:
Hesitation. When a player pauses, they're processing something. What were they looking at? What decision were they trying to make? Hesitation reveals confusion or uncertainty in your design.
Repeated actions. If a player tries the same thing multiple times, your feedback systems aren't communicating clearly. They don't understand why something isn't working.
Ignoring elements. That upgrade system you spent weeks building? If players walk right past it, either it's not visible enough or it doesn't seem relevant to them.
Facial expressions. Frustration, delight, confusion—these micro-expressions reveal emotional responses players might not verbalize. This is why watching someone play (in person or via screen share) beats reading survey responses.
Where they quit. If playtesters consistently stop at the same point, you've found a problem worth investigating.
Asking the Right Questions
The questions you ask shape the feedback you receive. Vague questions get vague answers. Leading questions get the answers you wanted to hear. Neither helps you improve your game.
Avoid asking:
- "Did you like it?" (Too broad, invites polite dishonesty)
- "Was the combat fun?" (Leading—you've told them what to evaluate)
- "What should I change?" (Players aren't designers)
Instead, ask:
- "What were you trying to do when you died?" (Reveals intent vs. outcome mismatch)
- "What was confusing, if anything?" (Gives permission to criticize)
- "What would you do next if this session continued?" (Shows what goals they've internalized)
- "How did you feel during the boss fight?" (Emotional response without leading)
- "What did you think was happening in that cutscene?" (Tests if your narrative landed)
The best playtest questions are open-ended and focus on player experience, not design evaluation. Players can tell you how they felt; it's your job to figure out why.
Structuring Your Playtest Session
A well-structured playtest respects everyone's time and maximizes useful output. Here's a format that works:
Before they play (2-3 minutes): Set expectations. Tell them roughly how long the session will take, that you want honest feedback, and whether you want them to think aloud as they play. Don't explain your game—if players need an explanation to understand the basics, that's valuable feedback in itself.
During play (15-45 minutes depending on your build): If possible, watch without interrupting. Take notes on what you observe. Resist the urge to explain or help unless they're completely stuck—every time you intervene, you lose data about how players naturally interact with your game.
If doing remote async testing, ensure you have a way to capture their experience. This is where in-game feedback tools shine: players can report thoughts in the moment rather than trying to remember them afterward.
After play (10-15 minutes): Ask your prepared questions. Let silences sit—players often fill them with their real thoughts. Thank them genuinely; playtesting is a gift of their time.
Common Playtesting Mistakes to Avoid
Defending your decisions. When a playtester criticizes something, your instinct will be to explain why it's actually fine. Resist this. Even if their criticism is based on a misunderstanding, that misunderstanding is real data.
Testing too much at once. If you're getting feedback on twenty different systems, you won't know which changes actually matter. Focus each playtest on specific questions you want answered.
Only testing with gamers. If your target audience includes casual players, test with casual players. Your hardcore gamer friend will breeze through difficulty spikes that would frustrate your actual audience.
Ignoring patterns. One player's complaint might be an outlier. Three players with the same complaint is a pattern. Five is a certainty. Track feedback systematically so you can identify what's signal versus noise.
Changing everything immediately. After a playtest, you'll have a list of things that didn't work. Don't rush to fix them all before the next test. Some problems will share a root cause; fixing one might fix several. Give yourself time to analyze before acting.
Making Feedback Collection Effortless
The friction of giving feedback determines how much feedback you get. Every extra step loses potential insights.
If playtesters have to alt-tab to Discord to report a bug, most won't bother. If they need to write an email describing where they got stuck, they'll forget the details. If they have to fill out a twenty-question survey, they'll abandon it halfway through.
The best feedback systems meet players where they are. An in-game feedback button that captures their current state—what level they're on, what they were doing, maybe even a screenshot—removes all friction. They tap a key, type a quick thought, and get back to playing.
This is why tools like Indieop exist: to make feedback collection invisible to the player while giving developers rich, contextual data. When reporting a problem takes five seconds instead of five minutes, players actually do it.
What to Do With All This Feedback
Collecting feedback is only valuable if you act on it. Here's how to process what you've gathered:
Categorize first. Group feedback into categories: bugs, confusion points, difficulty complaints, feature requests, positive moments. Patterns become visible when feedback is organized.
Prioritize by frequency and severity. A bug that crashes the game matters more than a balance complaint. An issue affecting every player matters more than one affecting a few. Create a simple matrix: how many people mentioned it, and how much does it impact the experience?
Look for root causes. Multiple pieces of feedback often trace back to a single underlying issue. Players might complain about difficulty, unclear objectives, AND not knowing what items do—but all three might stem from insufficient onboarding.
Separate fact from suggestion. When a player says "you should add a minimap," the fact is they got lost. The suggestion is one possible solution. Always dig into the underlying problem before implementing suggested solutions.
Close the loop. If playtesters see their feedback reflected in updates, they become invested advocates for your game. Let them know when you've addressed their concerns.
Your Playtesting Checklist
Before your next playtest, make sure you have:
- A specific goal or question you want this playtest to answer
- A build that's stable enough to play without crashes
- A way to record observations (notes, screen recording, in-game feedback tool)
- Prepared questions that don't lead the witness
- Playtesters who match your target audience
- A system to organize and track feedback over time
The Ongoing Practice
Playtesting isn't a one-time event—it's an ongoing practice. The developers who ship great games test constantly: after major changes, before milestone builds, throughout early access. Each round of feedback makes your game better and your instincts sharper.
Your first playtest will feel awkward. You'll ask the wrong questions, miss obvious observations, and probably get defensive at least once. That's fine. Like your game itself, your playtesting skills will improve with iteration.
The important thing is to start. Find five people this week, hand them your build, and watch what happens. The insights you gain will be worth far more than another week of building in isolation.
Your players have the answers you need. All you have to do is create the space for them to share.
