Run Confident Playtests & Make Games Better
Most games sell less than a hundred copies. Most studios fold after their first game.
Playtesting helps you avoid that fate.
Run high quality UX playtests to de-risk your game development process with battle-tested templates and processes at an affordable price for indies.
Most small studios only get one shot
Making a game is a huge emotional & personal investment.
It’s nerve-wracking to spend years crafting a game, not knowing whether players will play it, whether it’ll reach critical mass, and whether it’ll earn enough to keep the lights on.
You need your game to be a launch day hit, and for players to love it.
You need playtesting.
Playtesting Takes Effort
Playtesting is essential for making games that players love. But most game developers aren’t getting results from their playtests.
Finding the right people to playtest can take forever – it’s unclear where to look, or how to convince people to take part.
Worrying that it’ll just find bugs and known issues and that we won’t learn enough to justify spending time on playtesting
Then there’s the data – It’s messy & take ages to deal with.
And how do you make sure you are getting getting unbiased results?
Just getting started can be hassle. What tools and software do we need to send a build? live stream a session? record the player’s screen?
For many studios this means playtesting is too much effort, has an unclear return on investment, and is hard to prioritise against other game development tasks.
Those studios roll the dice on release, and risk underwhelming players.
Release a game you are confident in
Imagine a willing group of appropriate playtesters waiting to be called upon when needed.
A simple process for identifying when & what we need to playtest.
A library of playtest methods at your disposal, ready to be applied to when needed.
Pivoting easily between in-person & remote playtesting, and writing reliable surveys.
Cutting through the noise of opinions to make unbiased informed data based game design decisions.
And a reliable, robust tech setup – ready for any playtest challenge..
Games UX researchers know how to make playtesting effective and efficient. For the first time, The Playtest Kit makes professional level playtesting skills and methods achievable for everyone.
run professional quality playtests today
This toolkit is for small studios and teams without dedicated UX researchers.
Made in collaboration with game designers, producers, community managers, UX designers, QA managers and solo game devs, combined with my expertise from over 25,000 playtest hours it’s the complete playtest toolkit – making playtesting accessible to all.
It’s a comprehensive & actionable toolkit packed with processes, templates, guides, and tools.
Everything you need to integrate the best of games user research into your process and be confident running playtests today.
A really authoritative guide to organising playtests and sifting through the data for better results – there’s so much to take away here, it feels like getting a consultant in at a fraction of the cost. A must-have for any studio looking to better their games through clever use of structured feedback.
What is the playtest kit?
Watch this short video to see Games User Research expert Steve Bromley introduce the Playtest Kit.
The promise: Incorporate the best of games user research and unlock better playtesting, instantly
- Get organized & save time with a repeatable & efficient playtesting process
- Incorporate UX and User Research expertise instantly to avoid costly errors
- Find reliable playtest participants, and make the best use of them
- Draw reliable & evidence based game design conclusions based on real player behaviour
- Reduce risk by playtesting throughout development, find the fun and maximise your chance for success
A complete step-by-step advanced process for better + faster playtesting
You’ll get the complete toolkit with templates, guides + everything you need to run playtests today. Find playtesters, design & run playtests, and make sense from the data to find problems you didn’t know your game had.
Find the right playtesters
Work out who your players are, where to find them, and how to attract them to take part in your playtests.
Make the best use of your existing community, without biasing your data.
Create marketing opportunities and organic word of mouth for your game.
Prepare successful playtests
Select the right playtest method for your game
Be confident running live or remote playtests, gathering unbiased data from players
Run moderated and unmoderated, using observations, surveys and more…
Avoid leaks and keep your game build safe
Analyse playtest data
Cut through the noise of opinions with evidence to find the meaning in the results
Apply efficient analysis methods to get results fast
Prioritise and decide exactly what to action and what to ignore
Making a game players love
Find the fun within your ideas
Fix usability and UX issues
Balance difficulty, progressions and currencies
Make evidence-based decisions about design, mechanics, FTUE, retention, balance and more…
…and more!
What people are saying about Playtest Kit
a very approachable and developer-friendly guide to playtesting. The guidelines include helpful frameworks to keep you grounded during the sometimes chaoticness of game production, and makes playtesting feel not only less overwhelming, but genuinely more effective. It’s a must-read for new developers and veterans alike
The Playtest Kit gives you all the tools and tips you need to plan, run and analyse your own playtesting!
It helps to dispel the myths and mysteries around effective playtesting and should give you the confidence and knowledge to try it yourself. Playtesting can make a good game – great, so get stuck in!
This is the perfect tool for game development teams of any size. It offers practical solutions in a clear and straightforward manner, ensuring that playtesting is never out of reach to even the smallest indie developer.
Included in Playtest Kit
70+ advanced guides & professional quality templates to plan, run and analyse your playtests
- Test prototypes
- Recruit playtesters
- Pick the right playtest method
- Write a survey
- Set up the tech to stream or record
- Make evidence based decisions
- Deal with community feedback & more!
Find playtesters + prepare your playtest and your build
Guides, links and resources to help you decide playtest objectives, find the right playtesters, and prepare an appropriate test build.
Access proven player recruitment methods to define and grow your player-base, tailored for teams who don’t have much money to spend on playtesting.
Learn from others who spent hundreds of hours running playtests on how to define and access the right players.
A library of playtest methods
Get instant, customizable templates to help you apply the right method to get the results you need, fast.
Incorporate games user research expertise, to run in-person or remote playtests, or write a clear and unbiased survey.
Cut through the noise of opinions
Learn how to gather reliable and actionable evidence to inform game development decisions.
Sort through the noise to find the real information that matters.
Find real data to convince clients, colleagues or yourself, and find the fun!
Save time using carefully curated templates
Get access to tried and tested prepared templates for surveys, player recruitment, non disclosure agreements and more.
Build from a base template, or remix pre-made examples for popular game genres.
Bring structure into your playtest workflow
Pre-built checklists guide you through your tasks efficiently and easily.Ensure you don’t miss out on anything important, and run a successful playtest.
(P.S. There’s a lot more content within the playtest kit, but you’ll have to purchase it to dig in!)
Get the Playtest Kit Today
Just $219 for a single license, or $649 for teams up to 10 people. Includes:
- The complete toolkit
- Access to future updates
- 30 day money-back guarantee
The Playtest Kit is the result of years of experience, distilled down into easy-to-follow, usable steps.
Learn what to do, when to do it and how to make the most of play testing, no matter what stage of development you are at.
Even for teams with established play test processes, this kit offers tips and suggestions that can be used to tweak the formula. An absolute must-have for games UX, insight and research teams.
FAQs
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How does it work?
After purchase, you’ll instantly receive a link to the Playtest Kit, built in Notion. This can be duplicated as your own personal copy and the templates + process can be easily adapted for your own team.
Notion is a free tool for managing documents, templates and workflows, and only the free ‘personal’ account is needed.
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I’ve run lots of playtests before. Will this help me?
Yes. It was created in collaboration with game designers, producers, community managers, UX designers, QA managers and solo game devs.
Together we explored what are the most annoying and frustrating bits of running playtests, and created solutions to make them easier.
This toolkit will speed up and improve the quality of your playtesting process, whether it is your 1st or 100th playtest.
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I haven’t run a playtest before. Is this going to be useful for me?
Absolutely!
This toolkit starts at the beginning, to help anyone who is considering running their first playtest, or has some experience running playests & wants to improve them.
The Playtest Kit has useful tips on getting set up for game developers starting for the first time. You can also reach out to me on Twitter @steve_bromley for further help .
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When in my game development process do I need the kit?
Successful games run playtests throughout development, from the earliest concept to post-launch.
Our playtest roadmap will help you find the fun from the first prototype, and evolve your playtests throughout the development lifecycle to meet your needs
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What exactly do you mean by playtesting?
Playtesting is the process of putting your game in front of players to test your assumptions about what players will do, understand, or enjoy.
Playtesting de-risks game development, by allowing you to uncover and fix problems early in development.
It’s different from market research (deciding what type of game to make), and QA (looking for bugs) – but it creates iteration, which is a key part of making successful games.
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Is this really worth $219?
Most teams spend around 5% of their budget on playtesting and user research. But for solo developers or teams with development budgets under $500,000, this doesn’t go far – and experienced user researchers help is inaccessible to you.
This kit will save you time and money. It is the work of hundreds of hours creating content and collecting the best resources, so you don’t have to. You’ll get instant access to the complete toolkit to run your playtest.
I’ve designed The Playtest Kit to be actionable. It’s not a book you read once & shelve. It’s a toolkit that you will use regularly. UX consultants charge $500+ a day to set up these processes, and the time you’ll free up for other development tasks is invaluable.
I support parity pricing, so if you can’t afford this, DM me on twitter (@Steve_Bromley) and I’ll make it work!
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Do you have a refund policy?
Of course. If you feel like the Playtest Kit hasn’t provided you with any value, write to me & I’ll give you a refund within the first 30 days.
I’m passionate about making products people find value in and I’m confident in this product, but I want you to use it and be happy! The only thing I ask is that you let me know how I can improve.
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Do I need a paid Notion account to use it?
No. This runs on the free Notion licence, so no paid license (or experience of Notion) is required.
It also has guidance on how to get a free Notion account, if needed.
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Is an educational discount available?
Yes. Get in touch and we can work out the details.
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Other questions…
Say hi on Twitter @steve_bromley. My DMs are open.
Meet Steve
The Playtest Kit is made by Steve Bromley, who has worked as a professional games user researcher for over a decade on AAA, AA and Indie games, and helped studios set up their own playtesting & user research processes.
At last count, he has been responsible for over 26,000 hours of playtesting 😮💨
Working in the game industry inspires ample questions: Who are my potential players? Will they enjoy what I’m making? How can I make their experience even better, without spending decades and lots of money polishing? How do I know I’m on the right path?
Plenty of resources can (start to) answer those questions for you, and high quality materials teach you how to find your own answers. The Playtest Kit is among the highest quality, providing clear, concise, practical tools and templates, and teaching how to find answers, to support the pursuit of excellence.
This kit is a genuine wish come true, and I’m humbled to have been allowed to play a tiny part in bring it to life ♡
Playtesting is one of the most critical aspects of game development and the playtest kit lays out the entire process in an easily digestible manner. Perfect for people new to the game scene and want to learn industry-standard practice, or for veterans who want to streamline their process.
Start Running playtests today
The complete toolkit for de-risking game development with professional quality playtests.
Used by hundreds of game studios worldwide.
Find your first 100 playtesters
Free Course: Define your players, Find your first 100 high quality playtesters, and start your playtest journey today.
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