And that's the thrust of this post. This is my first official playtest and I'm currently assembling the after action report.
For those of you out there in the blog community, how many of you have participated in official playtests? And at what point is it ok to talk about it?
Right now, the game is still in preproduction, so my operating assumption is that I don't talk about specifics until it ships. After all, the game is almost certainly not in its final form and it would be unfair to set unreasonably high/low expectations.
But what happens after the game comes out? Are you free to comment on the development? Or would that be bad form? In the absence of direction, I'll lean towards discretion.
6 comments:
Haven't been in an official playtest.
If you signed any documents like an NDA, you might want to read those closely.
If you didn't sign anything, I'd avoid saying anything until it publishes just out of courtesy. After all, 75% of that game might have been stuff that will end up fixed or replaced.
If you do talk about it, try to separate the setting of the game from the rules, and both from the skill and traits of the referee. After all, the setting is sometimes easy to divorce from the rules, and hardly anyone will play with that specific referee.
I playtested (and helped write) the original Savage Worlds, and while I never signed an NDA and was never told what I could or could not say, it turns out that there were lots of things I said that weren't supposed to be public knowledge
I say, play it safe and not say anything unless expressly told you can.
I've done a lot of playtesting, including official stuff for big companies with scary NDAs and all! I really do enjoy the process and respect the evolving creative decisions immensely. In fact, in the last four months, I've been involved in three playtesting cycles for other designers' games, and I'm always happy to participate.
I could go on and on about the qualities of a great playtesting process, but, simply put, there's one fundamental rule: SAY NOTHING. There are MANY reasons why keeping hush matters, and most are pretty obvious.
After the release of a game, commenting to a certain degree is OK, but I'd still not do a tell-all as some spilled testing tales could have adverse effects on the released product, such as calling the final version into question or revealing details about material that could be used in a subsequent release.
Shhh.
I've never done a playtest, but I have to agree with everybody else. I wouldn't say anything unless I knew what I could and couldn't say (and even then I probably wouldn't say much). If I didn't know (like if the company didn't give me any scary legal paperwork), I'd remain silent.
Depends on the designer. At present the miniatures rules De Bellis Antiquitatis are in the playtest stage, and people are positively encouraged to play them and report on the games - the feedback is done through public forums.
Thank you all for the advice. It pretty much confirms my instincts. Mum's word for the foreseeable future...
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