Playtesting

General GTG General Discussion
1

For Infernal Relics I’m tossing enough money out there for me to be a playtester. Huzzah! But I’ve never been a playtester before, so I have a few questions…

  • How exactly does it work? Like, what is expected of playtersters?
  • What counts as good feedback, and what counts as bad feedback?
  • When I finally did the pledge and told my regular gaming group, they were excited to test it with me. I mentioned the playtesting to a few other people, and they were also excited to test it with me. I’m assuming I can play it with others, who probably also have to sign an NDA. Is there a limit to the number of people I can test with?
  • Is solo play (me running a few heroes by myself) frowned upon?

I realize most of these answers are probably in the files handed out when testing begins, but I’m just so curious now! You know how it is. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

Yes, most if not all of this will be explained by the designers when you start playtesting, but from my experience.

You get pdfs that you can print, cut (and, if you want, sleeve) yourself. You can play with your friends. Nothing is required or even really expected, but it’s hoped that you’ll be able to play and give your feedback. Solo play is absolutely encouraged. In fact, I’ve found it to be much faster than playing with others. All of the group decisions happen at thought speed rather than speech speed. It has disadvantages, of course: Fewer ideas generated and more likely to miss a rule or something.

Good feedback, I suppose, is any honest expression of your opinion of cards, decks, or gameplay. You can make suggested changes, but the designers reserve the right (of course!) to make final decisions. Suggestions on mechanics, I think, are more likely to be incorporated than suggestions on names and quotes.

There may be multiple releases of cards or even whole decks. Last time around it became clear that some decks needed more work than others, so the designers would ask us at times to focus our playtesting and feedback on those decks.

3

Arenson pretty much hit the nail on the head. The only thing I’d add is keep your eyes open for typos or tricky wording. Any suggestions you can give that provides needed clarity makes the game play smoother for everyone. Oh and play as much as possible! :smiley:

4

Thanks for the tips! I will certainly strive to do my part when the time comes.

And both of my parents are English majors. It’s like I have a genetic predisposition to proof reading. Even if I didn’t WANT to look for typos and awkward phrasings, my brain WILL find them. :stuck_out_tongue:

5

During my playtesting I pretty much just asked a lot of questions about stuff that I wasn’t too sure of or clear of how it worked. Also just kind of throw in who I played against what and rant on about how much I won/lost and how much I enjoyed the battle all and all.

6

For those of you who are new to the forum, how playtesting works is that there is a hidden category of Playtesting boards on this forum that only Playtesters can see and where they can discuss all of the games that they’ve played and all of the unreleased decks, etc.

Once the current Kickstarter campaign ends, all of the people who have pledged to be Playtesters will be added to the group and allowed to see and post in those boards.

The very best feedback from playtesters is a description of what went well / was fun and what went poorly / was not fun about the different games that you play. We will definitely sometimes encourage people to do intensive playtesting of certain decks at certain points , though feedback on any deck is good!

7

I’m sure it’ll be easy to get the hang of. I’ve donated to be a PT too, so I look forward to doing all this with the other (currently) 11 of you.

8

More then 11 people are playtesters. I kicked in a bonus $45 to be a playtester so it’s at least 12. :smiley:

9

Last I checked it said there were 38 spots remaining out of 50, so I thought that meant there are just 12 of us.

10

$45 dollars to help playtest is a bit expensive, imo.

11

Maybe…but being able to play the game months in advanced is pretty awesome.

12

Yeah, but the only reason I had the money was because a guy offered me $60 to do some really easy homework, so I was like “I’ve got spare cash. Why not?” Normally I wouldn’t have enough to be a playtester.

13

If you’ve only got $60 your name, brother, you probably shouldn’t be spending it on a card game. Word to the wise. :slight_smile:

14

No, I’ve got other money, but I just didn’t have EXTRA money. I just used that extra money for playtesting. I wouldn’t normally spend that much, because I can’t work (focus on the school) until summer, and what money I do have, I save for comics, video games, my girlfriend, etc.

15

I had a similar experience. I have a fairly regular playgroup that gets together and plays Sentinels together. Not too long ago, one of the guys handed me a 50 and said “Let’s do it,” so here I am.

16

I plan on joining the playtest as well through the extra $45, so there’s at least 14 right there.

17

Not to mention the already existent playtesters.

18

Does playtesting carry over from one expansion to the next? If so, that’s pretty awesome.

19

I would like to know this as well. $45 dollars is expensive to playtest an expansion. But to playtest multiple/all future expansions? WORTH IT.

20

I payed $75 for it not knowing it would carry over to this release. But at least I also got Rook City expansion when it was released (may as well considering they already have the preview cards) as well as the two promo cards at the time (giving me three promo Legacy).