The More You Test

Putting your work in front of people can be a daunting task. I know, I know. The world you made needs to be perceived as you want it to be. The story you tell has to be understood just the way you want it to be. The game has to be captivating and engaging at just the right time and exactly when you want it to be. The thing is, you don't know what you are doing. No matter how often you do this it will never change. Those lists you create of bugs and observations will eventually dwindle as you learn how to discern what is useful and what isn't. Testing will become a way for you to find things that are broken by letting players commit to their plans of action in ways you didn't expect.

You don't know what you're doing and that is okay. Nobody knows what they are doing.

We get better at it but rarely are we ever truly recreating the same experience. We are always starting something new. So, we try to convey that world, that story and that gameplay as best we can. There comes a point where you test something so much, though, and the results become a plateau of quantitative findings and an echo chamber of short responses. This is an important stage to hit, I believe. It helps you get to a point where decisions you make actually have an impact on the user experience. You see it as they play. More importantly, you see it as they stop providing you with certain responses and carrying out actions without a need for explanation. The best advice I can give someone who is trying to test their work is to "help them help you". Make it clear what you want feedback on. If you don't you'll find yourself in the loop of:

This was good. This was good. I prefer controllers over keyboards. This was good. I found a broken door. This was good. I found another broken door. This was good.

This was good.