while the second, it is hoped, is interested in producing compelling and stimulating
games. Of course, the two motives need not necessarily be at odds, but when one aims
primarily for the former instead of the latter, one is likely to end up with neither. Focus
groups can also be conducted later in development, when the group can actually play a
section of the game. These tests can be much more useful and informative, particularly
when trying to get the opinions of people who do not play many games. Since these are
“off the street” people, however, it will be difficult to gauge each person’s individual
opinion. As a result, for the focus test data to be statistically valid, you will need a fairly
large number of participants.
As you are testing, it is important to remember that you cannot please everyone.
Given a large enough testing team, there are bound to be people who dislike portions of
your game, or even who dislike the entire game. If you start trying to make every single
person on the testing team happy, you often end up making the game less fun for other
people. While you may have started with a game that a bunch of people liked a great deal
and a few people thought was dull, if you start trying to please everyone you may end up
with a game that everyone thinks is OK, but which no one is truly enthusiastic about.
Given the choice, I always prefer to give a certain group of people an experience they
truly love than try to give everyone something they like only marginally.
Playtesting should also not mean game design by committee. You do not have to
take every suggestion that your development team presents and implement it. Some of
these ideas may be perfectly reasonable but you may feel that they just do not fit with
your game. That is a totally acceptable response to have. In the end, it may be that
every single playtester you have tells you that some part of the game must change, but
if you feel, in your gut, as an artist, that you do not want to change that portion of the
game, then leave it as it is. In the end you must be the final arbiter of what happens in
the game. A committee, whether it consists of executives, testers, or even members of
the development team, can never have the unity of vision and certainty of purpose that
can be maintained by a single person. This makes game development a significantly
498 Chapter 25: Playtesting
When released,Tetris
was an extremely
unique game. Chances
are, an early focus
group for the game
would have gone
terribly. Pictured here:
classic mode inThe
Next Tetris.