How to be a Helpful Playtester

How to be a Helpful Playtester

We’re hard at work testing all the missions in Far Away: Corporate Espionage. Whether it’s our local fans testing with cards from my printer or our excellent community testing the demo PNP, we need all eyes on the game to make sure it lives up to the promises of the crowdfunding campaign. Recently, I’ve found myself conscripting people who haven’t playtested a board game before. While the raw experience is most important, I can’t help but to think of some guidance for these people to get and give the most during the tests. Here are a few tips for anyone playtesting a game that ensure everyone walks away feeling great.

Let's Talk About Gloomhaven

Let's Talk About Gloomhaven

I don’t like the combat in Gloomhaven. I’m the sap who read the rulebook enough times to know how all the bad guys act, so I end up being the computer my friends play against. It’s like being a Dungeon Master with none of the creative flair. Gloomhaven is a big enough game that it can take critiques from one more rando, but I’m driven to write this because of a persistent comment on Far Away’s creature management. Some folks can find that phase tedious or disproportional to the explorer phase. It’s a fair observation and, obviously, you can say whatever they want on the internet. To me, Gloomhaven has all the same problems and fewer of the emotional or narrative rewards Far Away offers. In analyzing the difference, I want to understand the role these systems play on the player.

Advertising FA:CE

Advertising FA:CE

During the first week of our Corporate Espionage’s Gamefound campaign, one of our Far Away superfans messaged us something to the effect of “I follow you guys closely and barely knew this campaign was coming.” It’s fair feedback that the message didn’t permeate the community the way we hoped. While it’s not surprising our messaging didn’t reverberate across the internet, it is surprising (to us) how poorly our advertising efforts did. Granted, we funded. That’s the goal and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in any capacity. But in the interest of transparency and helping other crowdfunders, I want to document what we did, what we avoided, and how it differed from past campaigns.