GDC 2025 Session Viewer
When Playtesters Are Children: Lessons in Patience and Play
Kelly Tran (Senior Game Designer, The Believer Company)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
When playtesting, one group that offers particularly candid and insightful feedback is children. Drawing from extensive experience at companies including Evolved Play and Tuxedo Games and focusing on the project Protostars (Evolved Play), I will share key lessons and best practices learned from playtesting with kids. The talk will cover essential aspects of playtesting with children, noting how their needs differ from adult playtesters. Key points include the importance of preparation, testing with different age groups, interpreting feedback, and examples of iterating with kids’ feedback in mind. Additionally, I will discuss specific playtest setups, such as playtesting with parents present and how to make the most of a virtual playtest session with kids. These strategies can improve playtesting, ensuring more fun for everyone and deeper insights for the development team.
Takeaway
Attendees will hear about best practices developed through extensive playtesting with children, who are brazenly honest and require especially clear instruction but offer excellent insights in return. They will come away with best practices and methods for playtesting with kids in a variety of settings.
Intended Audience
The intended audience is anyone working on a game with an audience that includes children, both games specifically for kids and games for all ages.
