Playtesting

Watching people interact with your stuff is... a lot. Pride, fear, defensiveness, curiosity - sometimes all at once.

I saw this at London Games Festival last week. I decided to go to the fringe bit - because that's usually where the most interesting stuff is. And the most accessible.

It takes a lot for me to cross the tracks and go to West London. (London crew, you know what I'm talking about. North-South, East-West - it's real.)

The venue was Exhibition - a former postal sorting office in White City. The New Games Plus event itself was at the edge of the festival, and I'm at the edge of the industry in general.

There's something quite freeing about that. It's a delightful place to ask dumb questions. People are really nice - excited to share, no ego, everyone figuring out the thing together.

A few things I saw:

- Deviation - Pictionary, humans against AI. You draw, the AI and humans all guess. If AI wins, the humans lose. Apparently it's big in Japan, because people there embrace AI as a collaborator rather than a threat. I'm still chewing on that one.

- Wax Heads - You run a punk record store. Navigate the scene, build your collection, keep the lights on.

- Beautiful Games Club - launched by ustwo games, it's a book club for games. Groups of people play games that jump out as being particularly 'beautiful' and see what makes them tick.

There were over 100 games, many still in development. When you make games, you need people playing your stuff - watching where they get stuck, what they skip, what makes them laugh. No precious attachment to the thing you made. Just curiosity about what happens when someone actually touches it.

This isn't always easy.

I was there as an observer. But I make things too. We're starting a playtesting circle at Wavetable - early access to new stuff, people who like poking at things. Message me if you want in.