Inspire What's Next

Playtesting is trying out a game or experience, often before it is completely finished or available to purchase. During a playtest, a developer, someone who worked on a game or an experience, will often give a player (you!) part of a game to try out to see what you think. By sharing these early versions of our work, we can see what people who did not make the game might think about something; what parts you might be excited about, or find difficult or confusing. Oftentimes we might find bugs (errors in the game) or be able to fix something before we release it for everyone to play! 

Most importantly, playtesting is about testing the game or experience to see what can be better–it is not about testing your ability to play the game or experience. We appreciate people of all skill levels trying out what we make at Schell Games, and the insights our players bring to help us make the best games possible!

That is okay! In fact, players new to playtesting often offer some of the most helpful insights, and sometimes we have opportunities specifically for them! (Do not worry experienced playtesters, we have plenty of unique opportunities for you as well!)

Every playtest is a little bit different, from surveys, to playing video games or trying out experiences in VR. Often, we will try to give some information about what you can expect for a particular playtest in the invitation email, or say who might be a good fit for a specific playtest. Clear instructions will be given at the start of each playtest, and as always, remember, we are testing that the game works and is fun, and not testing your ability to play the game!

If you are ever unsure about any of these details or would like clarification, please feel free to reach out at playtests@schellgames.com!

Just yourself! Simply fill out our“Sign Up To Be A Playtester” form on the Schell Games website to join! 

To help us match you with an appropriate playtest experience, this form has questions where you can indicate details about yourself, including: what types of games you like, what sort of software or hardware you have at home, or if you can join us to try out games and experiences in our offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA! Be sure to answer honestly, we have many opportunities available–our goal is to match you with the best and most enjoyable one!

If you are under 18, remember to use your guardian or parent’s email address in the email address field. Unfortunately, we cannot accept email addresses of anybody under 18, and must disqualify and remove any that do not adhere to these rules.

Anyone! Schell Games creates a wide variety of experiences and games designed for all sorts of people, of any age, ability, or experience level! Depending on what our teams are hard at work on, different opportunities will be available at different times.

Guardians and Parents–if you would like to sign up multiple members of your family, please fill out our “Sign Up To Be A Playtester” form once for each individual who would like to playtest with us. Remember to use your own email address, as we cannot accept email addresses of anybody 18 or under.

Once you have signed up for our Schell Games Playtesting Group using our “Sign Up To Be A Playtester” form here, simply keep an eye on your email! When we have a playtest that may be a good fit for you, you will receive an email with further details, including options to book an appointment slot to playtest with us. (Please see our answers below about what sorts of emails you may receive from us for more details.)

Note that you have not officially signed up for a playtest with us until you have booked an appointment through our appointment calendar and received a confirmation email, or otherwise have had your appointment confirmed by someone at Schell Games.

Due to the varied nature of the games and experiences we playtest, you may not receive an invitation from us right away (but you will receive a confirmation email saying you signed up right away!) Schell Games offers many unique opportunities for playtests, and we often look for playtesters that meet very specific criteria. Unfortunately, we cannot offer a specific time or schedule on which you may receive invitations to playtest with us.

Note that you may also receive more than one email from us in one day. While this is rare, each email will be for a different playtesting opportunity, so be sure to check each if you are interested in further details!

Here are the three most common emails you may receive from us at Schell Games:

• Invitation to reserve a time to playtest: If you receive an email like this, it means that we have a playtest that we believe might be a great match for your interests–all you have to do is select a time you can join us! These emails will have a link to our appointment calendar and details about the playtest itself. Remember: You are not signed up for a playtest until you have reserved an appointment time with us on our appointment calendar or received other confirmation from us!
• Short questionnaire to see if you qualify for a specialized playtest: While the form on our website that you signed up with gives our teams most of the information they need to see if a playtest might be a good fit for you, sometimes we need a little more information about something specific to see if a game or experience might be the right fit for you. Simply fill out the questionnaire survey linked in the email to see if you qualify. If you do, we will send a second email with an invitation to reserve a time to playtest with us. We will only email people that qualify for a specific opportunity
• Survey or other self-conducted playtest: Sometimes the survey is the playtest! Surveys help our teams share an idea or get preferences from lots of people at once, and each response is deeply appreciated by our teams, who use them to make better games! Note that some surveys will require an NDA to be signed.

In addition to the above, you may receive other communications from our team, especially if you have signed up for a playtest, including confirmations of playtest bookings, requests to sign NDAs, questions from our teams, and game codes or access to download an app or game for a playtest. As always if you have any questions, please reach out to us at playtests@schellgames.com!

Different playtests will take different amounts of time–but most last between 1 and 1.5 hours. For exact details about a specific playtest opportunity, check the invitation email you receive from us. Durations will also be indicated on our appointment calendar should you reserve a playtest appointment time with us.

No, playtesting at Schell Games is not a paid position, and playtesters are not considered contractors nor employees of Schell Games.

Not at all! For any playtest with Schell Games, and in the event that you do not already have access, we will provide you with access to the game.

While QA and Playtesters might both “test” games, the work they do is very different!

Quality Assurance professionals (also known as QA), are paid contractors or employees of a company with the specialized job of testing games for bugs or other performance issues. They set up repeatable processes to check to make sure the game works well, and can be played on every platform (for example, a video game console and your computer are both considered “platforms”) on which the game will be released. They also make sure that games meet the different requirements from various countries and platforms. Sometimes, QA might play just one small part of a game again and again to make sure that everything works well! Then, QA clearly reports any issues they run across back to the designers, programmers, artists, and other team members, telling them where in the game they found the issue, and how the issue occurred. Once the other specialties fix the issue, the QA team members are there to help again to make sure that the issue is now gone.

Playtesters are usually people outside of the company, who play games that a company is working on. When video game developers make a game, they want to know if it is enjoyable for others too–and that is where playtesters come in! Playtesters are often some of the first people outside of a company to see a game, and their outsider perspective lets the developers see how someone else plays the game. Compared to QA, playtesting is not focused on finding bugs, but rather on what was enjoyable or not enjoyable about the game. Playtesting usually only takes a very short amount of time, between around 30 minutes to 2 hours per playtest that a playtester participates in.

Before most playtests with Schell Games, you will be asked to sign an NDA, or a Non-disclosure Agreement. This is so that we can share our in-progress (and often secret!) work with you. If you are selected as a player for one of our playtests, a version of this NDA will be sent to you via Adobe Sign for online playtests, or will be given to you to sign in our office if you join us in person.

If you do more than one playtest with us, you will be asked to sign a copy of this NDA for each one.

To view the full text of our NDA, please click here.

We understand that sometimes life happens and you may need to cancel a playtest appointment you have made with us.

In the event you need to cancel, please reply to the email you received from us, or email playtests@schellgames.com at least 24 hours before your scheduled playtest appointment. While some exceptions to this policy may be made for emergencies, failure to properly cancel a playtest means you will unfortunately be unable to participate in future playtesting opportunities with our studio.

To read our full playtest cancellation policy, please click here.

If for any reason you need to update your information, including your contact information, name, or gender, please contact us at playtesting@schellgames.com.

Want to unsubscribe?

Simply email us at playtesting@schellgames.com with the subject “Unsubscribe from Schell Games Playtesting Group”.

For general questions about Schell Games, or for business inquiries, please email info@schellgames.com.

If you have a question about one of our games, or if you need support, email gamesupport@schellgames.com.

And for other questions about playtesting, simply reach out to us by emailing us at playtests@schellgames.com.