🎮 Playtests, Prototypes, and Permission Games

I'm feeling chatty which means – it's time for a new podcast! In this new episode of Make the Game, we're talking about:

• Playtesting (how I used gametester.gg to get valuable feedback)
• Prototypes (how much prototype time = how much production time?)
• Permission games (a concept of thinking about a game as "proving" that there's an audience for a particularly limited art style or mechanic)

🎧 Listen to the episode

Make the Game is published via Spotify for Podcasters; it's instantly available there and propagates out to (almost) all major podcast platforms (Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).

My plan was to also cover 9 things I learned pitching my game to publishers, but I'll talk about that in a future episode. Instead, I brought up permission games, which are games that make you feel comfortable cutting corners in certain ways. Mine include Undertale, Kingdom of Loathing, and now PowerWash Simulator.

Do you have any of your own?

✅ Here are those survey questions

Here are the questions we came up with for the playtest survey. These are a good starting point, but be sure to come up with questions specific to your game.

• Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with Pixel Washer?
• What did you like BEST about Pixel Washer?
• Did you come across any bugs in the game?
• Please provide as much detail as you can to describe the bug.
• What, if anything, did you find CONFUSING or FRUSTRATING about Pixel Washer? [Other than any bugs you experienced.]
• Were the objectives in the game clear to you?
• What would make the objectives more clear?
• Did the game live up to what you expected before playing it?
• What elements of the game did not live up to your expectations?
• Was there anything you wanted to do that the game wouldn't let you do?
• What did you want to do that you couldn't?
• If this game were to release on PC, console, and mobile, which version(s) would you be interested in playing?
• Which of these features would make you want to regularly come back? [Select all that apply]
• In your opinion, how should the tutorial be structured in this game?
• Where could the game do with more complexity or depth?
• If you could, what ONE thing would you change about the gameplay?
• What are your PC specifications?
• Please share your final thoughts and feedback.

Show Notes

• 📙 How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself (Gumroad, Itch, signed copies)
• Pixel Washer
• How to make a good Steam page
• Pixel Washer: 3-day devlog
• Lost Decade Games
• Steam Hardware & Software Survey
• Game Tester
• 💰 The Money Episode
• The illusion of skill: how to make a better game in less time
• Production Point
• Indie Game Sim
• Making an Indie Game About Indie Game Making
• How has web dev changed in the last decade?
• 💀 How to handle the death of a platform (for example: Twitter)
• Game Dev Comics by Matt Hackett
• @richtaur.bsky.social
• Making Big Indie Games (Gumroad, Itch)
• Join the Valadria Discord
• 60 minute video coaching/consulting

Thanks for listening. Now it's time for you to go make the game!