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Ask questions that expose what players were trying to do, what they understood, where they hesitated, what they felt, and what they would do next. A useful playtest is not a vote on whether the game is “fun.” It is a structured attempt to discover whether players can form the right goals, read the game’s signals, operate its controls, and stay motivated without the team rescuing them.
Choose one learning objective before each session, let the player attempt the task without correction, and use a short set of neutral questions after important moments. The script below gives an indie studio a repeatable method for first levels, tutorials, combat encounters, movement abilities, puzzles, and retention decisions.
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Start with one question the session must answer
Write one narrow objective before inviting a player. Examples include:
- Can a new player finish the first level without help?
- Do players understand the dash move and when to use it?
- Can players identify the next objective after the opening cutscene?
- Does the boss encounter feel difficult because of intended challenge or unclear feedback?
The AI Game Dev’s playtesting guidance, published October 3, 2026, uses the first two examples to show the right level of focus. A narrow objective determines which behavior matters and prevents a conversation from turning into an unfocused list of opinions. You can still collect surprising observations, but decide in advance what evidence will make you change the build.
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What to ask before the player starts
Use the opening minute to capture expectations, prior knowledge, and the player’s interpretation of the premise. Do not explain the game beyond the consent, controls, accessibility, recording, and session instructions you genuinely need to provide.
Warm-up questions
- What do you think this game is about?
- What were you expecting to do when you started?
- What kinds of games or mechanics feel familiar to you?
The first two questions establish a baseline. If a player expects a stealth game but the opening communicates an action game, later confusion may be a positioning problem rather than a control problem. The familiarity question helps you interpret behavior without treating genre experience as a defect. Record it as context, not as a reason to dismiss the player’s reaction.
Questions about intent and comprehension
Ask these after a meaningful action, pause, or decision—not continuously while the player is concentrating. They reveal the player’s mental model rather than inviting a retrospective score.
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- What were you trying to do just now?
- What did you think your options were?
- What did you think was happening in that scene or moment?
- What would you do next if the session continued?
If the player says they were trying to open a door but the design expected them to find a key, the mismatch is actionable even if they eventually succeed. Ask what visual, audio, text, or interaction suggested their interpretation. Do not immediately tell them the intended answer; the mistaken path is evidence about the game’s communication.
Questions about friction and usability
These questions locate obstacles without implying that the player made a mistake.
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Find confusion and blocked actions
- What was confusing, if anything?
- Where did you feel stuck or unsure?
- Was there anything you wanted to do but could not?
- How well did the tutorial or first interaction teach what you needed?
Follow a general answer with a specific probe: “Tell me more,” “What were you expecting?”, or “Why?” Neutral probes are more informative than suggesting a cause such as “Was the icon too small?” If the player mentions a problem, ask them to reconstruct the moment and the action they attempted.
Questions about emotion, pacing, and memorable moments
Players can complete a task while feeling bored, anxious, empowered, or lost. Ask about the experience after the relevant section rather than relying on a final global rating.
Emotion prompts
- What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played?
- What was your favorite or most memorable moment?
- How did you feel during the difficult section or boss encounter?
- Which part felt slow, repetitive, or especially satisfying?
Schell Games’ The Definitive Guide to Playtest Questions, published June 5, 2026, uses the “most frustrating moment” question because it asks for a concrete event. A memorable moment can be positive or negative; ask what happened and why it stood out. Treat frustration as a design signal, not automatically as a reason to reduce difficulty. A tense, legible challenge may be working, while an unclear objective can create frustration that no amount of balancing will fix.
A practical eight-question post-session script
A questionnaire of about five to ten questions is long enough to discover issues without exhausting the player. Game Design Toolkit recommends preparing questions in advance, making them specific, mixing open and closed formats, and keeping the total under ten. The following eight-question script fits a short indie playtest; remove questions that do not serve the session objective.
| Order | Question | What it reveals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What did you think the game was about? | Premise and genre expectations |
| 2 | What were you trying to do at the point we stopped? | Current goal and objective comprehension |
| 3 | What did you think your options were? | Readable actions and decision space |
| 4 | Where did you feel stuck or unsure? | Friction and loss of direction |
| 5 | Was there anything you wanted to do but could not? | Missing affordances, controls, or rules |
| 6 | What was the most frustrating moment? | Specific negative event and its cause |
| 7 | What was your favorite or most memorable moment? | Delight, identity, and standout content |
| 8 | What would you change, add, or remove first? | Player priorities and perceived value |
Ask the first question before showing the build, questions two through five at natural pauses or immediately after the test, and questions six through eight in the closing conversation. If you need a comparable measure across rounds, add one closed item such as “On a scale from 1 to 5, how clear was your next objective?” Keep the scale wording and timing identical in every session; use the player’s explanation, not the number alone, to decide what to change.
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Should you ask questions while the player is playing?
Usually, no. Let the player attempt the task without explanation, hints, or correction. The University of Michigan EECS sample playtesting script states: “If the player isn’t playing the game the way you intended, that’s your problem, not theirs.” Their behavior shows what the current design communicates.
Interrupt only when the session plan requires a specific clarification, the player cannot continue because of a technical fault, or safety and accessibility require intervention. Otherwise, note the timestamp and wait. Immediately after the moment, ask what the player was trying to do and what they expected. Neutral prompts such as “Tell me more” and “What were you expecting?” preserve the player’s interpretation better than leading questions.
Think-aloud testing can be useful for a menu, tutorial, or first interaction, but speaking changes play. If you ask players to verbalize continuously, compare those sessions only with other think-aloud sessions. For a natural experience test, observe silently and interview afterward.
What to record alongside answers
Statements describe a player’s explanation; behavior shows what the build actually caused. Record both in the same session log.
Behavioral signals
- Hesitation before an interaction or menu choice
- Repeated attacks, jumps, button presses, or menu visits
- Looking away from the objective, map, HUD, or tutorial prompt
- Asking for help or checking whether an action is allowed
- Taking an unintended route, abandoning an objective, or quitting
- Succeeding without a prompt, retrying voluntarily, or experimenting with a system
Write observations as facts: “Paused at the locked gate for 18 seconds and tried the attack button twice,” rather than interpretations such as “Did not understand the gate.” Ask about the event afterward, then compare the explanation with the recording. NVlabs’ game-playtest guidance and IndieOP both emphasize that behavior can reveal more than broad opinion. When in-person testing is impractical, remote sessions can use screen sharing or recording, provided the player has agreed and the capture setup does not interfere with play.
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How to compare sessions without collecting noise
Use the same task, build version, instructions, and core questions when comparing players. Track the following axes in a spreadsheet or session log:
| Axis | Evidence to capture | Decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Objective comprehension | Stated goal, wrong turns, next intended action | Whether objectives, cues, and progression are legible |
| Controls and interface | Button errors, menu searches, repeated inputs | Whether actions and feedback are discoverable |
| Tutorial effectiveness | What the player can perform without help | Whether teaching is timed and scoped correctly |
| Difficulty | Retries, deaths, strategy changes, emotional response | Whether challenge is fair, unclear, or poorly paced |
| Pacing | Slow sections, idle time, repeated tasks, voluntary exploration | Where to cut, vary, or reward activity |
| Memorable moments | Unprompted descriptions and standout events | Which experiences express the game’s identity |
| Frustration points | Exact trigger, attempted action, recovery path | What to fix first and whether the issue is systemic |
| Continuation intent | What the player would do next and why | Whether the next objective and motivation are strong enough |
Do not turn this into a popularity contest. One player’s dislike can identify a target-audience mismatch; repeated hesitation at the same cue indicates a communication problem. Label each note as observed behavior, player explanation, or team interpretation so these categories do not blur together.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Adapt the questions to the test objective
Testing a first level
Ask: “What do you think you are supposed to accomplish?” at the start, then “What would you do next?” after the first milestone. At the end, ask whether the player could finish without help and which instruction or cue mattered most. Record every point where the player stops moving or scans the environment.
Testing a movement ability
Before teaching it, ask what the player thinks the character can do. After the tutorial, ask them to explain when they would use the ability and what they believe its limits are. Observe whether they discover the move, use it in the intended context, and understand cooldown, range, or failure feedback without prompting.
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Testing a boss encounter
Ask what the player believed the boss was doing, what attack they were trying to avoid, and what signaled a successful strategy. Separate emotional intensity from unreadable telegraphs: “How did you feel?” should be followed by “What did you think caused that outcome?”
Testing a tutorial or onboarding sequence
Ask the player to perform the taught action later, without replaying the instruction. If they can execute it but cannot explain why or when to use it, the tutorial may teach a button rather than a decision. Ask which information they wanted earlier and which prompt they ignored.
Questions that create weak feedback
- “Did you like it?” This produces a broad preference with no event or cause. Ask which moment created that reaction.
- “Was the tutorial clear?” This invites a yes-or-no judgment. Ask what the player believed they had learned and what they tried next.
- “You saw the objective marker, right?” This is leading and can make a player agree. Ask what they noticed and where they looked.
- “Would you buy this?” Purchase intent is hypothetical and often detached from actual play. Ask what would make the player want to keep playing and what they would do next.
- Several questions at once. Separate control, pacing, story, and difficulty so the answer has a clear subject.
IndieOP recommends prompts about the player’s goal, confusion, next action, and interpretation instead of broad or leading questions. GameDeveloper.com’s guidance on moderating usability playtests likewise favors clarification over suggestions.
Close the session with prioritization
End while the player still remembers the build. Ask:
- If you could change, add, or remove one thing, what would it be?
- What should we investigate first?
- Would you recommend this game to someone who likes this genre, and why?
- What would make you want to keep playing?
These questions are not a replacement for observed evidence. They help identify the player’s perceived priority and language for describing the game. Capture the exact example behind each answer, then classify the issue as comprehension, usability, challenge, pacing, emotion, or content preference.
Turn notes into the next build decision
- Review the objective. Remove observations that cannot inform the question you set, but preserve unexpected severe problems for a separate issue list.
- Separate symptom from cause. “Player quit” is a symptom; the recording and follow-up may show an unclear objective, repeated failure, a technical fault, or a content preference.
- Group repeated evidence. Combine similar moments across sessions, keeping the exact scene, action, and player wording.
- Rank by player impact and design leverage. Fix a repeated progression block before polishing a one-off cosmetic complaint. A single issue that prevents the target player from continuing can outrank several minor annoyances.
- Write a testable change. Replace “make the tutorial better” with “show the dash’s use case before the first gap, then test whether new players cross it without a hint.”
- Retest the same risk. Keep the task and core questions stable enough to see whether the change altered behavior, not merely opinion.
“Could you describe any problems or difficulties you encountered while playing the game?”
University of Michigan EECS, Sample Playtesting Script
A disciplined script makes that question useful: the player can point to a moment, the team can match it to observed behavior, and the next build can test a defined hypothesis. The goal is not to make every player react identically. It is to make the intended choices understandable, the unintended choices explainable, and the moments worth repeating.
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