I love your interview/conversation style of asking a question and then getting out of the way for the featured person and allowing it to be about them. More interviewers should take note of this approach. Great video and I certainly gleaned some wise advice!
Thanks so much John, but the credit sits with those I interview. Without exception, they've been knowledge, generous and more importantly incredibly patient with me lol!
Amazing interview, I am just about to turn a prototype of my game into a print and play to test things out, was listing to this when working on the rule book hahaha!
First point made by Ivan about what sort of designer you are. I e heard this referred to as being a painter (adding to a blank canvas) of a sculptor (chipping bits away) I think it’s a great analogy
The most important thing about playtest is: Starting it as soon as posible, and doing it as much as posible. Yeah, it's posible that your game is trash. That's why it's important to playtest as soon as posible. This way you can know if it is in the right way, or what needs to change. It it is trash, then you might discover WHY it is trash. In the worst case scenario, you learn that there's something fundamentally wrong with the game, and you go back to the drawning board and reinvent it, or discard it completally, instead of wasing more time on something that isn't going anywhere. Regardless of what response you get, you will always be in a better place then before the playtest. "Fail fast, fail better" And at the first stages MAYBE you might give then some questions upfront, things they should look for or play around. But after that, you will always want to leave the questions to the end, when you'll be getting the feedback. It's important to filter the feedback, if someone didn't liked the game, or a particular aspect, understanding WHY they didn't liked it. Your game definatly won't be everybody's cup of tea. It's important to understand who are your target public, and what they seek in a game. Then you can better adjust your game to be something great for that audience, and luckly please some people outside of that. And on this topic of demographic, I think it's a good idea to have different playtests targeting different aspects of the game or publics: You'll a LOT of balance tests. Those are better done with people that not only are from your target audience, but already familiar with the game (have participated in other playtests) and play it well. So that they can not only underastand what's changed or what you are trying to test, but really explore the game and put the balance to stress. You'll do first impression tests. Those are better done with 2 kinds of groups, and both are important. The first group are gamers that are already familiar with the genre of games you're creating. The second one are newbies who don't have much experience with this kind of games, or even board games as a whole. That's because you want to know how your game will perform with experienced players, and what they will like or dislike about it, and you want to know how it will perform with newbies, and if they can understand it and have fun playing it.
Once again Panon, I really appreciate the comments here and completely agree with the idea of failing fast, so you don't waste time and energy in the future on something that could be fixed much earlier. First impression and balance testing are things we didn't get around to chatting about, so I am glad you’ve brought that up! Something for me to investigate further I think...
Hi Ali! Your channel is very qualitative, there is no equivalent in French, so congrats! I love watching your videos and I learn a lot. Maybe some women game designers would be interesting in interviews to hear? (like the female designers of Wingspan or Qwirkle). Thanks C. from Paris, France
I love your interview/conversation style of asking a question and then getting out of the way for the featured person and allowing it to be about them. More interviewers should take note of this approach. Great video and I certainly gleaned some wise advice!
Thanks so much John, but the credit sits with those I interview. Without exception, they've been knowledge, generous and more importantly incredibly patient with me lol!
I personally like the split view better, as for me personally the constant switching kinda messes with my head. 😅
Hey all. Another heartfelt to Ivan for being such a good sport and giving up so much of his time!
Thank you Ali, it was time well spent!
Amazing interview, I am just about to turn a prototype of my game into a print and play to test things out, was listing to this when working on the rule book hahaha!
Perfect timing!
Glad it was helpful, Edward! Ivan had a ton of useful info to share - I just wish I had more time to capture it all!
@@GamingIndoors I can imagine! Btw, anyone viewing this that is interested, you can play test the game here - www.pandoboardgame.com
Great job on the format! Ivan is also great at presenting these tricky aspects of the hobby. Got me hooked on your show!
Awesome, thank you Vesselin! It was so much fun speaking with him and to his credit, he said only nice things about you too !
First point made by Ivan about what sort of designer you are.
I e heard this referred to as being a painter (adding to a blank canvas) of a sculptor (chipping bits away)
I think it’s a great analogy
Yes! I'm stealing the painter vs. sculptor comparison :D
Brilliant video! Thank you. Keep up the great work.
Wow, awesome interview!
Glad you enjoyed it, Nikola - I had a blast speaking with him !
The most important thing about playtest is: Starting it as soon as posible, and doing it as much as posible. Yeah, it's posible that your game is trash. That's why it's important to playtest as soon as posible. This way you can know if it is in the right way, or what needs to change. It it is trash, then you might discover WHY it is trash. In the worst case scenario, you learn that there's something fundamentally wrong with the game, and you go back to the drawning board and reinvent it, or discard it completally, instead of wasing more time on something that isn't going anywhere. Regardless of what response you get, you will always be in a better place then before the playtest.
"Fail fast, fail better"
And at the first stages MAYBE you might give then some questions upfront, things they should look for or play around. But after that, you will always want to leave the questions to the end, when you'll be getting the feedback.
It's important to filter the feedback, if someone didn't liked the game, or a particular aspect, understanding WHY they didn't liked it. Your game definatly won't be everybody's cup of tea. It's important to understand who are your target public, and what they seek in a game. Then you can better adjust your game to be something great for that audience, and luckly please some people outside of that. And on this topic of demographic, I think it's a good idea to have different playtests targeting different aspects of the game or publics:
You'll a LOT of balance tests. Those are better done with people that not only are from your target audience, but already familiar with the game (have participated in other playtests) and play it well. So that they can not only underastand what's changed or what you are trying to test, but really explore the game and put the balance to stress.
You'll do first impression tests. Those are better done with 2 kinds of groups, and both are important. The first group are gamers that are already familiar with the genre of games you're creating. The second one are newbies who don't have much experience with this kind of games, or even board games as a whole. That's because you want to know how your game will perform with experienced players, and what they will like or dislike about it, and you want to know how it will perform with newbies, and if they can understand it and have fun playing it.
Once again Panon, I really appreciate the comments here and completely agree with the idea of failing fast, so you don't waste time and energy in the future on something that could be fixed much earlier. First impression and balance testing are things we didn't get around to chatting about, so I am glad you’ve brought that up! Something for me to investigate further I think...
@@GamingIndoors You actually touched the subject briefly. I just expanded upon what was said on the interview hehe
Wow amazing interview. Ivan gave some solid advice. 😊
He really did!
Putting the goal of the game at the beginning g of the rulebook parallels Simon Sinek's Ted Talk "Start With Why"
Hi again Ivan :) great job Ali, just discovered you!
Hi Ali! Your channel is very qualitative, there is no equivalent in French, so congrats!
I love watching your videos and I learn a lot.
Maybe some women game designers would be interesting in interviews to hear? (like the female designers of Wingspan or Qwirkle).
Thanks
C. from Paris, France
# 7 at this point this is becoming a sport haha xD