Development Hiring play testers from Fiverr

Coded Games

Member
Has anyone hired play testers from websites from like Fiverr?

If you have, how did it go? Do you recommend doing it or anyone in particular?

I have been thinking about hiring a couple people to try my game. Probably just the cheapest plan for a couple people to test the new player experience as it has been quite a long time since I have had brand new players play my game.

My game has online logging to monitor what players are doing in game so it would be interesting to see if Fiverr testers actually play the game for however long they say they will.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Watching a new player encounter the game for the first time is a really valuable experience (does the UX / tutorial get the essential interactions across? How's the first impression?) so if you could set up a screen share setup you'd get even more valuable feedback (as long as you can resist the temptation to interfere with their natural learning process).
 

Coded Games

Member
Oh yes I know how extremely important it is to not instruct new players. Like whenever I do have people try my game for the first time I tell them I'm not going to answer any questions unless they run into a bug or the game entirely omits some piece of crucial information. If there is those scenarios then I know there are things I need to fix for sure.

If I release the game I can't look over the shoulder of everyone and give them a personal tutorial!

Also I usually tell people trying my games to not actively look for bugs. I don't want people playing the game like they are QA testers and walking into every wall. I want them to imagine that they just bought the game off Steam and are playing it for the first time, like they would be playing any new game.
 

ThraxxMedia

Member
Speaking from a pure business perspective here... I don't know if it's really that beneficial to pay people just for playtesting. Unless you're expecting your game's sales to return the investment (or if you really don't care about some monetary loss), I'd just ask a couple of friends instead. Usually they're more than happy, especially if you give them a testing build for free. Better yet, IRL friends or family - this would be the ideal scenario, for you could watch them over the shoulder and take notes as they go.

Other than that, I don't really have any experiences with people from Fiverr, but the monitoring thing sounds like a good idea. There's always a risk of picking a foul egg from the basket, so you'd certainly wanna know if they did what they were paid to do. Or you could always ask for specific feedback on certain aspects, as opposed to allowing boiler-plate statements like "yeah, controls felt good and I liked the graphics".

Another idea, which would require a little bit of extra effort on the tester's end (but if you're paying them in the first place, that shouldn't be too much to ask): have them record a video of their testing process. Like a sort of "mini let's play" with their live commentary. I did that once (albeit with a friend whom I didn't have to pay) and the feedback I got from it was incredibly helpful.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I'd just ask a couple of friends instead. Usually they're more than happy, especially if you give them a testing build for free. Better yet, IRL friends or family - this would be the ideal scenario, for you could watch them over the shoulder and take notes as they go.
Friends and family might worry too much about your feelings to give honest feedback, or have seen you work on the project enough that they can't give a proper "first impressions" reaction anymore. Use with care.
 

ThraxxMedia

Member
Friends and family might worry too much about your feelings to give honest feedback, or have seen you work on the project enough that they can't give a proper "first impressions" reaction anymore. Use with care.
True, although: if you consider someone to be an actual friend, and you ask them to please give honest feedback, it should generally be fine. Of course, exceptions occur and your mileage may vary, as with pretty much anything else related to individual opinions. But if someone's constantly sugarcoating everything you do or say, maybe they're not that good of a friend after all. Practical example: the earliest stage of a World of Warcraft build that leaves the Blizzard studio for testing purposes is literally called the "Friends & Family Alpha" - I doubt everyone on that list is an employee of the company.

Feedback of a friend might be biased, whereas feedback from a Fiverr person might not be what you were looking for... and then you're sitting on your loss.
At the end of the day, I guess it really just comes down to whether or not you can afford the risk. Both ways have their pros and cons.
 

Mk.2

Member
The benefit of having friends test the game is getting to watch them play. Watching a small group of friends play the first game I ever showed anyone was some brutal feedback, and that was just from witnessing their experience, not from what they were saying about it. The suggestion above to do a screen share set up if not in person is a great idea, or even having them record the footage and send it.

Have you tried looking for Twitch streamers and youtubers who check out new and unfinished indie games? I know it's common with game jams, not sure about regular projects. Also, they might not give your game more than one playthrough. Still might be worth checking out.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
True, although: if you consider someone to be an actual friend, and you ask them to please give honest feedback, it should generally be fine. Of course, exceptions occur and your mileage may vary, as with pretty much anything else related to individual opinions. But if someone's constantly sugarcoating everything you do or say, maybe they're not that good of a friend after all. Practical example: the earliest stage of a World of Warcraft build that leaves the Blizzard studio for testing purposes is literally called the "Friends & Family Alpha" - I doubt everyone on that list is an employee of the company.

Feedback of a friend might be biased, whereas feedback from a Fiverr person might not be what you were looking for... and then you're sitting on your loss.
At the end of the day, I guess it really just comes down to whether or not you can afford the risk. Both ways have their pros and cons.
I'm not just talking about sugarcoating... friends that are too familiar with your work might instinctively understand stuff a normal player would get stuck on, making you miss stuff that oughta be fixed. (E.g. if you always use the F, G, and P keys for actions, they'll try those first and you'll miss out on the stumbling block that's nonstandard, non-labelled controls)
 
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