About playtestyour.games

Origin

This started as a Reddit post. In r/aigamedev I offered to play anyone’s game and rate it out of ten on three things (playability, aesthetics and originality), with an honest write-up for each. Hundreds of comments later it was clear two things were in short supply: developers wanted real feedback from someone who had actually played, and with the amount of games being developed, players would need a way to find the diamonds in the rough.

playtestyour.games is that thread, as a web app. Same mission, better tooling.

Read the original thread on Reddit

This site is free for everyone. If you want to support the project, you can buy me a coffee. All donations are greatly appreciated.

Ethos

  1. 1.Peers, not critics

    Reviews come from people who make games too. The point is to help the next build be better, not to rank taste or dunk on a first attempt. Every score comes with a reason the developer can act on.

  2. 2.Played, not skimmed

    Certified playtesters will actually play your game before they rate it and provide feedback on our three core categories: playability, aesthetics and originality.

  3. 3.Specific and answerable

    Reviews say what was seen, when, and what got in the way. Creators can claim their game, respond to every review, and show what changed.

  4. 4.Honest and helpful

    A 3 with a clear reason helps more than a polite 6. We use the whole 1–10 scale, celebrate what works, and name what does not, because the goal is a better game, not a nicer chart.

  5. 5.Open to the best of man and machine

    Using AI to build a game is fine, and many of the games here were made that way. But fun, pacing and feel are judged by people, and a game earns its score by how it plays, not by how it was made. Human attention is the scarce, valuable thing, and this site exists to give it.

Ratings

Every playtest scores three things from 1 to 10. Their average is the game’s score, on the same scale. Tap a card to see what goes into each one.

PlayabilityHow the game feels to play: controls, feedback, pacing and stability.
  • Controls & responsiveness
  • Difficulty curve & balance
  • Onboarding & tutorial
  • Game feel & feedback
  • Bugs & stability
  • Performance & load times
  • UI / UX clarity
AestheticsHow the game looks and sounds, and how well it all fits together.
  • Character graphics
  • Background & environment art
  • Visual effects (VFX)
  • Sound effects (SFX)
  • Background music (BGM)
  • UI art & typography
  • Art direction & consistency
OriginalityHow fresh the idea is, and how much of it is the creator’s own.
  • Core mechanic
  • Theme & setting
  • Twist on genre conventions
  • Narrative & world
  • Unique system interaction
  • Signature style

The 1–10 scale

1
Broken
2
Rough
3
Weak
4
Below par
5
Fine
6
Good
7
Strong
8
Excellent
9
Outstanding
10
Flawless

Why ratings matter

Developers get real reviews

Structured, comparable feedback from someone who actually played, which is the hardest thing to get for a small or early game.

Players and devs discover the good stuff

The leaderboard and tags surface games worth an hour of your evening, from a pile that would otherwise go unplayed.

It rewards a proper playthrough

Three separate dimensions and a written review mean a rating takes more than a glance at a store page, so scores reflect the game as played.

The Playtest HUD

The HUD is a small desktop companion for playtesters. It pulls your review queue from this site, launches the game, keeps a timer and a recording of the session, and when you stop it cuts short highlight GIFs and lets you post the review without leaving the app.

  • Your queue of games to play, straight from the site.
  • Launches Steam, itch.io, web and Android games and finds the window to record.
  • Records the session and keeps the clip on your machine.
  • Builds up to three ten-second highlight GIFs to attach to the review.
  • A session timer, so a rating reflects real playtime.
  • Posts or updates your review through the API when you are done.

It talks to the same API as this site, so everything it posts shows up here as a normal review. The HUD is in early testing on Windows. Sign in and create an API key on the API keys page to connect it.

Find a game to playSubmit yours