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Does having people playtest your game count as a team?
Posted by little_blue_ant
August 8th, 2012 10:11 am
Hey, LD newbie here.
I think one of the most important aspects of game design is to have people test the game. It’s an iterative process; if you don’t know what other people think of the game, then you’re simply making it for yourself. If we go around asking friends or random people to give our games a try, does it count as not working solo anymore? If so, then this thing is going to be way more challenging than I previously thought 
90% of the fun of LD for me is to make it as social as possible while still creating all of the content myself. That’s why I livestream the process, and I definitely put up builds from time to time for viewers to play with.
An interesting question…
Some LD contestants do make early builds, and ask others to test it, with questions like “What frame-rate do you get?”, or “Run this and see if you connect to the server okay?” Sometimes suggestions can be offered in reply.
I don’t think such suggestions would break the rules, but I’m not sure there is a clear line between that and being a designer on a team. The distinction is made in both magnitude and intent.
Playtesting isn’t against the rules, as long as the design, code, and content are all yours.
Having some people test the game to see if they find the game too easy/hard, or ensuring they grasp the concept and stuff is fine.
Playtesting is encouraged. Often people will post early builds on the IRC channel or in their status updates to get early feedback.