How can you design playtesting scenarios that simulate real-world usage?

2 Choose your testers

The next step is to select the right testers for your playtesting scenarios. Ideally, you want to have testers that match your target audience, as they will provide the most realistic and valuable feedback. However, depending on the stage and scope of your game, you might also want to include testers with different backgrounds, skills, or preferences, as they can offer different perspectives and insights. You should also consider the size, diversity, and availability of your tester pool, and how you will recruit, communicate, and reward them.

3 Create your scenarios

When you have your goals and testers, you can begin building playtesting scenarios. These scenarios are sets of instructions, tasks, or challenges that direct your testers through your game. To ensure the scenarios reflect how your testers would naturally play your game, make sure they are not too restrictive or vague. To create effective playtesting scenarios, use realistic settings that match your game's genre, theme, and tone. Provide clear and concise instructions that explain the purpose and expectations of the scenario. Additionally, vary the difficulty, duration, and frequency of the tasks or challenges depending on your goals and testers. Furthermore, include different modes, options, or paths to allow your testers to explore and experiment with your game. Finally, encourage your testers to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions while playing.

4 Collect your data

The next step is to collect your data from your playtesting scenarios. Data can be qualitative or quantitative, depending on your goals and methods; qualitative data referring to opinions, comments, or suggestions from testers, and quantitative data referring to numbers, statistics, or metrics measured manually, through observation, or through tools or software. For instance, you could measure completion rates, success rates, or failure rates of tasks or challenges; the time spent, progress made, or goals achieved in the game; the frequency, duration, or intensity of actions, events, or interactions; errors, bugs, or glitches encountered; and the satisfaction, engagement, or enjoyment levels of the testers.

5 Analyze your results

The final step is to analyze your results from your playtesting scenarios. This involves interpreting, comparing, and evaluating your data, and drawing conclusions and recommendations from them. The goal of analysis is to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your game, and to suggest ways to improve it. To conduct effective analysis, you should organize and categorize your data according to your goals and metrics. Look for patterns, trends, or outliers in your data, and try to explain them. Compare your data with expectations or hypotheses, and prioritize your findings based on importance, urgency, or feasibility. Finally, communicate your findings clearly and concisely using charts, graphs, or reports.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?