"Alright kids, gather 'round! We're going be be playing a game called Amnesia! It's gonna be so fun, just let me turn the lights off. I'll be back in an hour or two!"

@FluffyTurbo

7 жыл бұрын

bump the age up to the youngest you think people should be to play your game a kinda pre esrb rating as you will it it is like GTA get your youngest being 18 from hardcore gamers to moderates to those who don't play a lot of games at all.

@neilisbored2177

5 жыл бұрын

@@FluffyTurbo Or, for another example, sonic boom, where the minimum age where you should play is 1024. Because nobody should play that game.

@FluffyTurbo

5 жыл бұрын

@@neilisbored2177 SoNiC bOoM sOnIc BoOm SoNiC bOoM

@neilisbored2177

5 жыл бұрын

@@FluffyTurbo Is that like a reference to that game grumps episode?

@FluffyTurbo

5 жыл бұрын

@@neilisbored2177 yea

13. One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation. -Evil Overlord list

Alrighty, gathering some 10-year-olds for my take on silent hill, thanks for the tipp.

@Scarletraven87

8 жыл бұрын

"Still playing child games, aren't you?" aunt Sofie asked. My friend didn't reply at first, but slowly, malisciously grinned ... for Sofie didn't came to visit alone: her 8 year old son was with her.

@angelwhispers2060

7 жыл бұрын

roflmao

"Only 2 kinds of people always tell the truth, children and drunk people".

@cringelord5446

9 жыл бұрын

and my sleep-talking sister :3 .

@cringelord5446

9 жыл бұрын

:O *Hic*

@CreeperOnYourHouse

9 жыл бұрын

***** *hic* was it back in 2012? *hic* Were you thrown out *hic* after your shenanigans killed 20 scientists? *hic*

@BlackINKim

9 жыл бұрын

Allright, got it, I'm going to order 200 drunk children to playtest my game to oblivion.

@cringelord5446

9 жыл бұрын

i would volunteer >:D

I feel like every developer and game company should see every single episode of this show.

@Multiwoopdedoo

10 жыл бұрын

agreed, especially the company that made nfs rivals. such a shitty port to pc

@fluffy6923

6 жыл бұрын

They defiantly saw loot boxes & game budgets episodes.

@whatislife459

4 жыл бұрын

God I wish this aged well.

@zak9399

4 жыл бұрын

@@whatislife459 I know exactly what you're talking about. I try to be open to ideas but that episode...yikes

@gemstonepuppet

2 жыл бұрын

@@zak9399 Can I have context?

I only had the success with my game design due to playtesting in the manner described here. Listen to everything he says, write it down, set aside your feelings, and do it. Over and over. Do it early, do it smart, do it often and at every new point in your projects design. This video may be the single most useful and important set of advice to improve the success of your work. You can not let your feelings dictate otherwise. A++ video Extra Credits

@MrBeef-sh3lc

8 жыл бұрын

Yeah. I'm trying to start a club at school concerning game development.Where we live, we don't have this, so I might as well try. I've been binge-watching Unity, Blender, and GIMP tutorials. I've been also watching this for the mental aspects of game development.

When I played Portal for the first time, I came to a level that at first seemed quite complicated. It involved switches and boxes and other shit in 3 different rooms, then I found a solution that was very fast, easy and simple. I assumed that all the other stuff was for a distraction, that the simple solution was the "correct" solution. Then, playing with the commentary on, I found out that the simple solution was unintended by the game makers. The game makers found this in testing but allowed the "ninja solution" stand because they felt this solution took more skill than the intended solution.

A little kid definitely won't hesitate to say what they're thinking...

@aaronb6379

9 жыл бұрын

O MA God mooooom jour so fat

@ericdripp3791

9 жыл бұрын

AnimeAddict Actually ...umm...nevermind...

@caden8428

6 жыл бұрын

AnimeAddict I

@genericgamer1271

5 жыл бұрын

We won’t

Never use 1 to 10 scales on your surveys. They are even, meaning you don't have an exact mid-point, hence causing innate bias. 11 or 7 are your friends. And make sure you add meaningful headers on your survey, say "0 = Terrible, 5 = Sort of OK, 10 = Awesome".

@musaran2

6 жыл бұрын

+Andrei Despinoiu : Nope, mid-point i 5.5. 5 is the midpoint of 0-10. Anyways, I would go one step further and recommend a -/+ scale centered on 0, so that neutral is obvious and extremes less tempting.

Lol, that ending is so true, when I got my little brother to play a game I was making, he destroyed it. I was just like "what happened? Dafuq did you do to my baby?" He's just like "There was a glitch here, here, and I don't know why but this thing didn't work after I walked through this wall. It was weird."

@ThaVillageGamers

9 жыл бұрын

In other words, your game was pretty unstable

@Aazdremzul

9 жыл бұрын

ThaVillageGamers Oh yea

@veloc.raptor9136

4 жыл бұрын

Progress of game?

@starpeep5769

2 жыл бұрын

damn?? this tip actually works but what about difficulty cuz difficulty is more various..

I actually give some mates in my class my prototype of a jumping men with a little lighter/lamp .... I thougt I become bad feedback, or "Hey, thats boring" .... but they were all positive suprised :) Now, I am motivated, I will complete this game !

@coyraig8332

3 жыл бұрын

It's been 6 years. What's the progress?

These guys deserve so many more subscribers than they already have.

@nuevolithium7421

9 жыл бұрын

Kristen ingram do you really mean that?

@LordBloodySoul

9 жыл бұрын

Kristen ingram True that. I am glad that I found some help in testing my family project game on communities for hobby developer :3 We play-test it ourselves, but we also wish to have the insides on flaws from people who don't know us and don't know our game :3

@mickyblue011

9 жыл бұрын

Nintendoman 678 I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it.

@soul6134

9 жыл бұрын

Kristen ingram That's why I subscribed. ;)

@paranidherc

9 жыл бұрын

Kristen ingram Problem is - they have too many biased opinions. It is merely scientific if at all. There is no "better" in science. Many things they say is just their personal preference rather than a fact and this makes the show unattractive for professionals.

Taking into account the order in which players give their feedback notes, is actually really smart, never thought about that one. Tanks!

@1cool

2 жыл бұрын

Tanks!

even if they tell you only what you already know atleast now you know what you know is relative/relevant and thats something worth knowing.

I've done testing for some of the game students at my uni, and was fun, I just felt they hovered over me the entire time I was playing >.< it made me want to stop playing because I felt they were waiting on me to say something when I'd barely played the thing! Plus I wasn't good at the controls and they kept looking like they wanted to grab the game back and go "No, like this!"

Made brutal game with a lot of blood and 2 sex scenes: *Kids, check this out and tell me what you think.*

@moxierains5448

7 жыл бұрын

Kissing on the lips doesn't count as sex, Reaper.

@oicmorez4129

7 жыл бұрын

damn i always misunderstand stuff

@Private27281

6 жыл бұрын

I thought of how badly a kid would be scarred from Cod, Gta, Silent hill, and Hatred

"If you think your difficulty is just about right, it is usually way too hard" MOAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA YIIIIIIIHAAAAAAAA!!!!!

@izikblu

8 жыл бұрын

+Drakensson sooooooooooooo if i want a super hard game i just balance it till i think its hard?

@Drakensson

8 жыл бұрын

izikblu depends how you want to proceed

@izikblu

8 жыл бұрын

lol

@Drakensson

8 жыл бұрын

izikblu im sorry?

@izikblu

8 жыл бұрын

no you are fine

So, the message is: 1. Playtest early. 2. Pay close attention to all of the feedback you get. 3. *Your best testers are kids because they won't hesitate to tell you what sucks.* Good advice!

@grassblightthechespin4389

9 жыл бұрын

RyuTora2808 and they totally will tell you it sucksif you don't automaticly give them 9001 guns they'll tell you it sucks because everyones a cod kid nowadays

@99sonder

9 жыл бұрын

grassblight the chespin Well he also said that you should let a lot of kids play it, not all kids are CoD schumks.

@grassblightthechespin4389

9 жыл бұрын

was I saying they were cod kids?

@99sonder

9 жыл бұрын

grassblight the chespin Well the important thing was that you should study how the kids play, find out where they get stuck or if there was a way they could enjoy themselves more. Prefrences doesn't matter in that regard (and it's not like the developer will bend over and add in *everything* the player says).

@grassblightthechespin4389

9 жыл бұрын

... okay now that this has stretched into ridiculos traitory 2+2 = chickhen unless we divide it by carcrass beaks alongside steam

This is an awesome series, and this video really hits home. I and a group of about a dozen other people spent the past year designing and developing an iPad game, and seeing this video is almost like hearing a fly on our wall throughout the process. It's wonderful how all this applies so much to the process! Just shared this video/channel with another guy on our team.

Hmm i don't recommend to tell little children to come to my house to play some games.

You still have your whole life ahead of you. EC has other videos dealing with specific jobs in the industry, watch those as well. But really, all we can say is just do your best. Love it? Do it. That's all man. And every gamer out there is rooting for you, whether you see it or not. Good luck with that.

and here is one input from me, I enjoyed this outro. Not so loud as in nearly all videos before and I began to swing with it. good done

Uuuum, what if you're making a horror game? Man, dem poor kids ^ ^

@chillbro1010

8 жыл бұрын

+darnact Test the game early before you have any textures, a brightly lit corridor may not tell you how good your horror is, but they might have something to say with how the character moved, how it felt to pick things up, or if they understood what the puzzle was. Do they learn quickly that you hid a key in a drawer? Or that you can even interact with the drawer? stuff like that. As he said, you can play test even before you have models in the game, just squares floating around.

@egarulastinn7438

8 жыл бұрын

+Connor Hill i'd argue testing puzzles on children isn't the best idea, as they are, well, children. But it's funny to imagine 5-year-olds playtesting braid

@chillbro1010

8 жыл бұрын

Kora Octavia I don't mean puzzles in the sense of giving them a sudoku to do in the middle of the game, but im pretty sure even kids know how to weigh down a seesaw to get to a higher area, or understand that keys open locks. Not saying every puzzle should be super easy, just that sometimes the game flows better if even a child could find the answer EVENTUALLY. Again, unless the game is based around puzzles and new thinking. Basically: Puzzle can mean anything from mensa level down to simply "fit the block in the hole"

@harrison6082

8 жыл бұрын

Since little kids r the best testers. Does this explain why companies like EA, and activison market test from them? Instead of a majority of their audience?

@MrBeef-sh3lc

8 жыл бұрын

I don't think it is allowed for them to use children for their tests. The game is governmental rated "M", so having children will be pointless. They just use the mentally-challenged CoD players.

This is pretty sweet advice, and a good series in general! Also, nice MOTHER song at the end there.

I heard that strangers make the best playtesters from many sources now, but all of them miss on the crucial information: how do I get them? I have a feeling that walking up to a stranger on the street propably won't work. Various cons may make it easier, but then you are just playtesting your game with the kind of audience that goes to cons, which is really not very representative. Any ideas?

@otacon1024

8 жыл бұрын

Mate, this is the Internet :D Use it. It gives you access to millions of people of all kinds.

@playr1077

7 жыл бұрын

Raymaniak you'd be surprised how many people are willing to help someone out so i say go for it, but make sure you are not making it sound like you're getting ready to kidnap the volunteer

I feel like a lot of this information on playtesting is also very relevant to other art mediums and critique. :D Very useful and informative!

Damn I love your channel. I planned to get into gamedevelopment for a long time (even started coding already (though only recently so nothing to show yet)), and you show me so much stuff I haven't thought about, yet is so obvious. I stopped coding and will take some time going through your videos. I'm confident that your channel will help improve the quality of my future games.

4:35 Seras Victoria and her Harkonnen cannon. My God, EC And Hellsing in the same Video. This made my day.

Get a group of toddlers to playtest the next gorefest horror game. Great idea! Loljk good vid, makes me wish I could make games.

@Hylander27

10 жыл бұрын

knowing some kids they may complain that's it need more gore or more guns

@LostScarf

10 жыл бұрын

Hylander27 This is every nephew and niece.

@BlueBleedStl

10 жыл бұрын

Hylander27 With HYPER REALISTIC BLOOD... can't forget that cliche

@TheAvgCommentator

10 жыл бұрын

BlueBleedStl More like stereotype.

Your videos really help me to understand what it will be like diving into game design.

Ubisoft needs to watch this video. They've actually messed up both Tetris and Monopoly, both games that have been around for years and have obvious tried and true rules. This is sad.

I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to develop a game before I go to college so that by the time I get through college, I'd have something to build on. Extra Credits really helped me with designing it, and maybe one day when I make a game, I'll put their names in the "special thanks" list in the credits.

Play testing is fun. It is nice to work so hard on a game and then get to play it. Playing is fun. I have only used myself as a playtester so far. It is probably limited. It is better to get other people. The details can get intense in this video.

Good luck! And don't worry about stealing anyone's idea, design is all about observation and having references, that's why it's so hard to make something out of the blue. everything has a reference. EVERYTHING :)

My goodness this is exactly how it played out during the first play test session of a team-based school project game I worked on... Especially the kids part

Hey, Blizzard.. WATCH THIS VIDEO! Learn from WoD. Don't ignore your playtesters ever again! You do NOT know what is good for us, and WoD clearly proves this.

@jaycboy04

8 жыл бұрын

+BenieTheDragon what is WOD I only knew WOW so im like WUT

@BenieTheDragon

8 жыл бұрын

jaycboy h WoD is Warlords of Draenor, it's the latest expansion.

Best extra credits video.

Love the Earthbound music at the end! :)

This, helped me very much. I owe you guys!

Oh wow I really enjoyed this episode! I don't know why, but it reallyyyyyy captivated me so much! damn

When I play test, I will (1) play test through the most of dev. (2) encourage my developers to play test the game they have so far, and (3), leave a coupon for , say, 5$ off the game. If they take it or leave it, it's valuable data.

I watch this because it goes for any other medium. As a composer, my "play-testing" often involves showing my target audience (fans of the genre) my music. But like I said, it works for any medium.

Haha, I'm currently in college, making it for my CV. Well the main reason is that I had that one idea for a game since a long time and want to make that real now, CV is secondary, but always nice to have ;) Good luck with your game.

I would say that your single handily make me want to become a games designer, but that's not true I have always loved games my whole life and I really feel like I would love to give something back (hopefully I will have the skill), by making them. your videos help me a lot, thank you. Kaylan, a 15 year old games designer and developer :)

Hmmm this information is actually extremely helpful as I've been considering getting some play testers for my game. :P

6:05 HAHA. THAT PICTURE OHMYDOG THAT PICTURE HAHAHAHA

playtest a game 1000's of times myself during development? thats an understatement XD

Lol I love the way you said that kids would be 100% honest. x)

Man I can understand what you are saying I recently made a survival Horror similar to Slender 8 pages, and wanted to go with a Discovery asstatic but when I playtested it with my friend who never played a First Person Horror Survival Game before (Or any modern game come to think of it) didn't know what to do even if he found a clue. He just ignored it and moved forward while someone who plays games would insistently know what to do

Thx for making this vid.I wanted to be a playtester when I grow up

Really useful episode for anything in life, really :)

I really like these videos.

They are! "Mommy, why is that man so sad?'' ''But I wanna do something else!'' ''What do I do now?" They are perfect

Portal had a LOT of play testing, and we all know how well THAT went. It was one of the greatest ****ing games ever made!!!

great channel! very useful and fun info! :D

Best outro music yet ;-)

An easy way to see how good your game is is to give the tester some kind of food reward if they stop playing. If the game is really good the person will ignore the food and keep playing, but if the game is meh, then they will go for the food. And you can vary how extreme it is. Example: Start testing at 12:00 and tell them at exactly 2:00 everyone is going to get get ice cream or something. If I am playtesting the next Fallout I will stay. If I am playtesting the next Bloodrayne, I'm gone.

Fitting seeing as Valve playtests like crazy. I'm sure a little of that made it into GLaDOS's character.

Awesome! Now all I need to do is hire an army of Child Pro(fessional)-Testers.

The difficulty comment reminded me about that up up down down left right left right was created because the creator found the game too hard and couldnt finish it, and later forgot to remove the code.

I'm currently making a mobile game with a friend of mine, and we had done extensive testing on paper before we even knew we were going to make a game. We decided to make it an app was because our bordem made us be creative with a simple idea. I can't wait to start sharing and have people play test it! (However I am paranoid about the "stealing your idea" part). I'm paranoid.

Very useful to me as a guy who is experimenting in making games.

I'm thinking about (finally)starting to use game maker to.....make games. and this show is probably going to help a lot.

It's from Earthbound, or Mother as its also known. You're more likely to have heard it in Smash Brothers as the characters Ness and Lucas are from that game.

having only been introduced to this site recently, I am watching these old clips for the first time. Bungie/Destiny did a whole lot of heat maps on where people went and what they did to get a feel for things. Second thought - I got exposed to the 1-7 scale during grad school as opposed to a 1-10 or 1-5. It still leaves enough variation without having them have to split hairs or just grab a number. sorry @Michele Kribel I did not see your post until afterwards.

get little kids to play test oh boy feelings will be hurt

I just love the intro music!!!! :)

I just wan't to say how helpful these are for me when I am making my first serious game.

remixed earthbound store theme at the end was nice

you know, as i was listening, i started to think about my DnD champaign and my DMing, this video works really well as a Dungeon Mastering Tips video lol. i know im already thinking of ways how to test things.

"Hey kids! We're gonna let you play this new game! Just, let me know when this timer runs out, there's some boring stuff there". "I still wanna see it!" "Well, too bad."

everything makes sence, I'll try to remember this

I just finished the engine and the features of my game and designed and made the first level. I wanted to playtest with my friend but we couldnt voice chat, i sent him the game and after half an hour of playing (it was only 1 super short level) all he said was good. And he was in another game in steam in a server and he said it was playing in the background. I need to playtest with more people but i dont want to waste peoples time just to make them play 1 level...

@reNINTENDO

7 жыл бұрын

If your worry is not enough content to merit testing, I highly recommend suppressing that worry. As stated in the video, the earlier the better, and not having much means you can make changes easier. I also strongly suggest playtesting with people in the same room as you. I know that can be difficult, but if you've got a decent laptop and still go to school or to work where people have some free time, have acquaintances play it. Some friends will give good feedback, others will be painfully concise (as yours was).

@fernandobanda5734

7 жыл бұрын

SerdarCS I second the thought that you shouldn't worry about your demo being too short. If a player can get the feel of your game already, even if not the full extent, that will be valuable feedback. You also have a higher chance of finding testers if it takes less time.

if i make an rpg the player will get to see the damage formulas for the attacks before they select them, so they have a clear understanding of what to expect, as such their knowledge of the games system will be heavily accounted for and it would be mostly skill as such what i concider to be normal difficulty would probably only be hard mode.

Ok, super late to this. But how about cross media testing? I'm mostly a writer and a film-maker. What if we started getting groups of people, sitting them in a room and letting them choose between a book, a show/movie and a game? They only give feedback on the ones they tried and it could give you a better idea on how your product can compete in the full market place. By the way, as I said I'm a film-maker and writer but I've been utterly devouring your videos lately because they give some of the best general writing advice I've ever gotten, good job.

I like to tune cars in the racing game Forza Motorsport. When I see my brother driving and swerving under braking I always ask if he would like me to tune his car and he always says no. On the rare chance that I get him to drive one of my cars he is astonished at the control and ease of use while still giving a challenge. But while I get him to drive them I when ever I ask him what could be improved on he has no idea. On an even rarer occasion I can watch him driving and make a suggestion on how to tweak something. His lap times improve but another aspect of the car is still providing problems and over a short 5 to 10 minutes of testing I could improve his love for a car and the gaming experience in general. I'm not sure what I am saying but I guess watching others play your game can clue in on flaws and just because you can handle a specific challenge doesn't mean that it is well built. I can drive an awful car but through the trial and error that is racing I can prepare for the unpredictable nature of this unwieldy vehicle but that doesn't mean it is good. You can get good at the aiming "Minecraft" (on consoles) but that doesn't mean it feels as fluid or correct as Doom 2016. I can say for certain that my cars in Forza are the best but that is because they are the best for my preferences, skill set, and level of driving precision. If I played the game with a terrible controller or a steering wheel and pedals, my setups would need to change with the new level of coordination be it hardware or other. (Still not sure what I am saying but I guess) Perfection is unattainable and though you might adapt to a game after weeks of testing that doesn't mean its rough areas as small or as large as you think they are. I figured out what I am saying. You can become immune to good judgment on any thing if you stay with it for to long. Whether it is a friend or a political standpoint. Someone thought that the aiming for shooting segments in "Mirrors Edge" (on consoles) was remotely passable (it is worse than Minecraft).

@Extra Credits Sorry for the necro, but this is still a valid point.. I wonder how often can the same person playtest? I mean discrete time stamps... once a month/year?

This is why I love companys like blizzard, always play test there games

I saw the title and prepared to make a Bethesda joke and my face was like thid :D. But then he said it wasn't to do with bug testing and then my face was like this D:

i'm not a game designer but i have worked with kids. yeah if you if you talk to them right and try to get get at what they are trying to say instead of taking it at face value you get better results. think of it as if they are foreign speakers that have limited english ability. they know what they want to say they just don't know the words to say it with. so you have to help them.

The shop theme from Earthbound!

Haha. Can't wait till I finish my game. I will give it to my friend so he could try it out. I will be silent, won't say anything, and just look how he reacts to everything :)

I think they mean the reasons behind Giygas, and even if it's only one part of the game it still has to be included in content.

Does these rules also apply when you're testing something like a card game? Or are there different considerations in that case?

Well part of that's from games becoming more story focused, and developers wanting everyone to be able to see the end. Though I suppose you could just turn the difficulty up if it bothers you.

Well, he means games in general. Were this limited to survival horror (or just horror) I think the best type of playtester would still have to be a teenager or close to it. They're the most likely to scream, gasp, etc., and that will give you the most honest feedback (as opposed to an adult who smiles the whole time then says "yeah that was really scary")

Earthbound music. Sooo awesome.

really helpful, thanks.

hahaha I'm dying at the picture of 'unbiased data'. I guess my emotion chip is functioning proper.y

I would like to know more about "Playtesting labs", in my country we have little information about how they impact in the games and why they are usefull...Does anywone have any information (graphics, numbers, etc)?

The Learning Company knew about playtesting. They had kids come in to test and then the kids got to walk away with a free game or toy. I pariticipated at least once... but at the time I doubted I gave very good feedback. Hopefully they got something more from watching me than my verbal responses.

...and suddenly, if you're italian, you recognize the guy at 4:50 and say to yourself: how in the world did a meme having him in it got in an Extra Credit video?

Now that I've seen the ending of this video, it is tie to find some children. Mwaa ha ha ha ha.

A good example of playtesting is League of Legends's Public Beta Server, which allows you to gain access to content not yet released and participate in a forum debate to discuss what is good/bad and what needs changes about mechanics/champion... etc. Not only this has a great final product, but because the company can put their attention elsewhere instead of patching everytime. (Better nerf Irelia is a prime example of poor playtesting, they needed almost 7 months to balance her.)

Just a very minor gripe. Don't make a scale from 1 to 10 when you want to know peoples opinions on something. Make a scale from 1 to 9, or 1 to 11, or 0 to 10. Why? Because if the playtester doesn't feel strongly about a subject they will put a cross over the exact middle. In shifting the scale just a little so there is no inherent middle they will be compelled to make up their minds if it's just a little positive or just a little negative. This is valuable.

FAIL FASTER

Hey guys, I just finished playtesting and you need to tighten up the graphics on level 3.

From where is that song in the ending? I swear i have heard it before...

As someone once told me, the two most truthful people you'll ever hear from are children and the town drunk.

i love the video, but that "rule" at 5:40, i really can't agree. to me as a player, a steadily increasing difficulty and game depth is extremely important and engaging. basically, it can't be hard enough if the player is about to complete the game (defeat last boss etc).