Imagine this (though you probably don’t need to): You’ve poured your heart into your game—designing levels, tweaking mechanics, perfecting every detail. But will players actually enjoy it? Will it resonate? This is where playtesting comes in - getting real player feedback at every stage of your development. 

Integrating it into each development sprint ensures real feedback shapes your game’s design, mechanics, and experience. More than just a step, playtesting is the backbone of great games—refining engagement loops and optimizing player retention from the start of development.

What is Playtesting?

Playtesting is the process of gathering targeted feedback from your ideal player persona at any stage of development—guided by the specific objectives you define. Whether you're refining player retention, evaluating level design, or ensuring mechanics feel intuitive, player insights help shape a stronger, more engaging game. It highlights what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved, ensuring your creative vision translates into a polished experience that resonates with players and drives game engagement.

In this blog we will delve into the art of gameplay feedback led development and deep dive into:

1. What is Playtesting?

2. The Playtesting Process- Stages and Formats

3. QA vs Playtesting: Common Playtesting Misconceptions

Why Playtesting Matters

"It Takes Two" (2021) exemplifies how playtesting sharpens game design into a polished, engaging experience. Hazelight Studios relied on extensive player feedback to refine mechanics, balance difficulty, and ensure every interaction felt fresh. The result?

• 95% positive reviews from over 174,000 Steam players

• 23 million+ copies sold (as of March 2025)

Another popular example is “Battlefield.” New maps, weapons, features, etc., are regularly playtested and improved with player feedback. This player-led development bridges any gap between developer intent and player expectations, ensuring a more balanced and engaging experience.

Success stories like these highlight a clear truth: even the most well-crafted games benefit from an outside perspective. When developers are deeply immersed in their work, it’s easy to assume players will naturally understand the experience as intended. But those assumptions often overlook critical player expectations.

That disconnect comes at a cost:

• 43% of games are canceled during development, and

• 83% of mobile games fail within three years. 

Most of the time, it’s not the tech—it’s the disconnect between design vision and player reality.

The Playtesting Process: From Ideation to Iteration

Playtesting is an iterative, multi-stage process that evolves alongside and shapes your game’s development. Test often and constantly to save time, cut costs, and fix issues early before they become expensive mistakes. Here’s a breakdown of how we at Lysto typically approach this multi-stage process:

1. Conception: concept playtesting centers on evaluating early game ideas, assessing their potential, and ensuring they align with player expectations. 
   
   

2. Pre-Production: Developers test initial concepts and designs to ensure the core idea is viable. This is where you validate your game vision with real gameplay feedback.
   
   

3. Production: As the game takes shape, playtesting at this stage focuses on further refining gameplay, balancing game stats, and ensuring the overall First Time User Experience (FTUE) is positive.
   
   

4. Release Prep: The public build is playtested to ensure that it is stable, refined and polished, ready for players to dive into on day 1.
   
   

5. Post-Launch: Continuous playtesting after the game’s launch helps gather player feedback for future updates, patches, expansions, and helps track player churn rate.

QA vs. Playtesting : Common Misconceptions

It’s important to note that playtesting is not the same as Quality Assurance (QA).  While both are essential, they serve different purposes.

Quality Assurance (QA) is developer-led. It focuses on identifying bugs, glitches, and performance issues.

Playtesting, on the other hand, is player-led — it’s all about the player’s experience. Are audio cues clear? Is the core gameplay loop engaging? Does the game encourage engaging social interactions? 

Playtesters provide feedback on how enjoyable or frustrating certain aspects of the game are, helping developers fine-tune and refine the overall experience.

Remote Playtesting: Reaching a Wider Audience

One of the most significant advantages of modern remote playtesting is the ability to access a global pool of players, who can playtest from the comforts of their home. Real environment, real gameplay, real insights. 

At Lysto, we offer access to over 350,000 registered playtesters worldwide, ensuring your game is tested by a diverse audience. Whether you need players who fit specific criteria—genre, skill level, or age group—or insights from different regions, including Tier 1, or hyper-local segments, we help you test where it counts.

AI-Powered Playtesting: Smarter, Faster Feedback

Many studios hesitate to embrace playtesting, often citing time and budget constraints. But with AI transforming every aspect of game development, playtesting has evolved too. Lysto’s AI-powered player insights deliver structured, rapid feedback—eliminating the need to manually sift through hours of gameplay videos and allowing developers to focus on what truly matters: refining the player experience.

Encouragingly, 79% of developers feel positive about AI in game development, whether for playtesting or design. With faster, more efficient solutions now available, integrating playtesting into your process isn’t just beneficial—it’s becoming essential for building better games.

The Wrap-Up

Whether you’re a AAA studio, mid-size publisher, or indie developer, early player feedback helps improve retention and fine-tune the experience. Playtesting takes away the guesswork, which simply cannot be a game mechanic.

With Lysto’s collaborative workspace with AI-powered insights, you can streamline playtesting with key stakeholders, organize feedback quickly, and spend valuable time save on uncovering key player insights —helping your team refine every stage of development and maximize your game’s potential.

Connect with us to build a strategy that sets your game up for success.