How to Set Up Your Self-Playtest, Practical Steps and Best Practices

1. Build a Functional MVP (Minimum Viable Prototype)

Before you begin, make sure you have at least a basic version of your game — rules, components, and setup. It doesn’t need to be pretty or polished; it just needs to work.
As Playtesting Best Practices explains, “Creating your Minimum Viable Game means crafting the simplest playable version of your concept then self-playtesting that version to see what truly matters.”

Tips:

• Use simple materials index cards, paper tokens, sticky notes to represent components.
• Shorten your play sessions: reduce the number of turns or objectives so you can test multiple runs in less time.
• Define a clear testing goal: “What do I want to learn from this session?” e.g., How long does setup take? Do players feel they have meaningful choices?

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2. Take on Every Player Role

When you’re playing all sides yourself:

• Assign different player personalities one aggressive, one collector, one defensive, etc. This helps you see if any strategy becomes dominant.
• Keep track of what each “player” does with sticky notes or a short log.
• Don’t try to win; the goal is to observe how the game behaves from multiple perspectives. As one designer said, “Your goal is NOT to win.”

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3. Record Your Observations

During and after your playtest:

• Write down anything that feels off: “Player B had no options on turn 3,” “Setup took 12 minutes,” “I forgot why Player C took that action.”
• Note why it happened: unclear rule? overpowered move? lack of incentive?
• Focus on questions, not just fixes great design often comes from asking why something feels wrong rather than immediately changing it.
  As the article Playtest Like a Boss suggests:

“While testing, always write down any problems that you notice and don’t just write down possible solutions.”

• Run multiple iterations the more times you “run” your prototype, the clearer its strengths and weaknesses become.

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4. Focus on One Aspect at a Time

Each self-playtest doesn’t have to cover the entire game. Narrow your scope to specific areas:

• Setup & first phase: How long does it take? Is the flow intuitive?
• Player decisions: Are choices meaningful, or does one path feel automatic?
• Scaling & balance: Do players accumulate resources at the same pace?
• Endgame state: Does the conclusion feel satisfying or just exhausting?
• Replayability: Do turns start feeling repetitive after a while?

By setting a clear focus each time, your sessions remain short, structured, and purposeful.

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5. Keep Version Control

Every time you change something e.g., “Reduced card count from 15 to 12” or “Added +1 action per turn” log it:

• What version is this (v0.1, v0.2, etc.)
• What changed since last time
• What you observed
• What you’ll test next

This helps track your progress, avoid repeating the same fixes, and understand how each modification affected the game.