Take Turns Giving Feedback

Different groups and designers have different norms for handling feedback. Some designers prefer written notes, while others just want to see and experience their games.

Most groups, however, have some kind of post-play feedback session, where playtesters are asked to verbally share their thoughts with the designer.

If you’re part of one of those groups, I’m here to present the case for why you should adopt a system in which every playtester gets to take a turn giving their feedback.

Online Groups

If your group is online and you do verbal feedback, giving each playtester a turn to speak is basically a requirement. With the audio-only nature of most online feedback sessions, it’s difficult to tell when someone is actually finished speaking, and it’s impossible to see who might want to jump in and speak next. Without an order to your feedback, people will get interrupted, they will be talked over, and someone will feel unwelcomed and unvalued.

Online groups, like Heavyweight Championship Playtesting, build turn-taking into their playtesting guidelines, and the feedback is a lot smoother because of it

Even with the advantage of subtle language cues, there are still several reasons that in-person playtesting groups should try this out as well.

Counterbalancing the “Big” Personalities

In the standard, free-for-all style discussions that most feedback sessions are, the most extroverted personalities will inevitably dominate. Having people go around the table to take turns will make sure that everyone at the table is being heard.

Perhaps more importantly, this will establish a group culture that everyone at the table is valued, respected, and that their opinion matters. Groups with these kinds of values inevitably foster a more safe environment where creativity can thrive, people can take risks, and the overall work improves.

You Want Everyone’s Feedback

As a designer, it would be a shame to miss out on some really great feedback just because someone was getting interrupted, or didn’t feel comfortable jumping into a group discussion. You just had 4 people playtest your game, why would you only want to hear from 75 or 50% of them? That’s a horrible return on the investment of time that everyone just put into playing your game!

Over the course of many plays, these numbers can add up. If your environment shuts down a certain type of playtester, but they had actually spotted a fatal flaw in your game, missing out on that information could cost you time, opportunity, and even money.

Order Is Always More Efficient Than Chaos

Warm fuzzy feelings about welcoming people aside, taking turns during feedback will shave time off of your playtesting sessions, ultimately allowing you to test more games.

General feedback discussions, where everyone is just riffing off of each other and breaking down aspects of the game, can take a loooong time, especially when there is disagreement among the players and/or people are throwing ideas around.

When taking turns though, people don’t usually talk for more than a few minutes each. People tend not to repeat others so much other than to acknowledge that they agree or disagree with some previous feedback, and then present their own notes.

Now, there may be times where you’d have to limit one player’s feedback (perhaps they are going into detail about the 5 pages of notes they’ve written out), but for the most part when handled this way, there seems to be a pretty strong incentive to present your feedback fairly quickly in order to give other people the chance to speak.

But I Want To Respond!

Cool! This is another great reason to have a notebook with you during playtests so you can write down your thoughts and get back to them when it’s your turn to give feedback.

Also, after everyone has had a chance to give their initial feedback, there’s no reason that some things can’t be discussed in a more informal way by the entire group afterwards. I’m just saying that it’s important to give everyone that initial chance to get their thoughts out, otherwise you risk shutting them down entirely.

The Designer’s Responsibility

Ultimately, even if a group doesn’t take turns giving feedback across the board, designer run the show during their playtests, and should feel empowered to run their feedback sessions in such a manner if they want to.

It can say a lot to the players at your table if you being feedback with something like, “it’s really important for me to hear from all of you, so I’d like to take turns giving feedback.” I know that I would feel really welcomed in an environment like that.