There you have it. Your game is old, unused, and costing more in server space than it is making anymore. Perhaps it’s glory days are behind it and its no longer loved because of a newer, shinier, bigger brother game - time to send it over to the virtual retirement home for some much deserved rest. 

Or perhaps your game was a complete failure—never launched or launched but didn’t work as intended. That’s okay. In game development, mistakes can be valuable lessons, but only if you take the time to truly understand them. 

Post-mortem playtests offer a way to do just that—to take the findings from playtesting sessions and refine them into actionable insights, ensuring that the same issues don't crop up in your future projects. Yet, this process is far from straightforward, and effectively conducting post-mortem playtests requires discipline, openness, and a structured approach.

Let's explore how to harness post-mortem playtesting so that the ghosts of past mistakes do not haunt your future games.

What Are Post-Mortem Playtests?

A post-mortem playtest involves analyzing a game after its playtime has largely concluded. The main objective is to identify flaws and unexpected issues that surfaced during player interaction and determine what went wrong and why. Unlike iterative playtests done during development, post-mortem playtests are less about tweaking the current game and more about learning from it for the future.

Why are they crucial? 

Well, post-mortems ensure that even if the current project is complete, the knowledge and experience you gain from it will serve as invaluable resources for your next game.

Think of them as the forensic science of the development process, where you dissect every decision, from game mechanics to UI design, to understand what worked, what didn’t, and—most importantly—how similar mistakes can be avoided in the future.

The Anatomy of a Post-Mortem Playtest

A typical post-mortem playtest session should aim to explore both the player's experience and the development process itself. Here’s a breakdown of a structured approach to get the most out of these sessions

Gather Comprehensive Player Feedback

The first step is to gather feedback from as many sources as possible. Playtesters' experiences can reveal where players struggled, what frustrated them, and what elements felt particularly satisfying. Every player’s journey through the game can unveil different insights—things even seasoned developers might overlook.

Combining diverse perspectives ensures you have a holistic view of the game’s reception. Surveys, player interviews, and gameplay recordings from Lysto can all provide different angles on the player experience. Remember, unlike game development playtesting there isn’t a single truth here; every player's experience is a piece of the puzzle.That is the key difference here. 

Analyze Internal Communication and Development Logs

Apart from player feedback, a post-mortem playtest should consider how internal processes may have contributed to certain flaws. Did conflicting design philosophies delay critical decisions? Did communication bottlenecks between programmers and designers lead to misaligned features? Understanding the human aspect of game development—the collaboration, the deadlines, and the tools—is as crucial as the mechanics themselves. Even when looking in the mirror can be a hard thing to do — or might even be an unwelcome thing in your company. 

Look at Industry Examples

One of the best ways to prevent repeating mistakes is to study how others stumbled and then recovered. By learning from the community at large, we gain insights that we might not encounter firsthand. Developers should always look beyond their project for lessons learned perhaps with a competitor playtest. See why your game failed but your competitors did not. 

Or you can also do your own research. The good news on this is that the games industry is becoming increasingly transparent, with devs sharing post-mortems of their own challenges. These accounts can help guide your analysis and sharpen your sense of what to look for during your own post-mortem.

Identify Actionable Takeaways

A post-mortem is only useful if the findings translate into concrete actions for future projects. Identifying key takeaways is about ensuring that insights turn into practical adjustments. For example, if players expressed consistent frustration over unclear objectives, this could lead to a team-wide agreement to prototype and playtest tutorials much earlier in development next time.

Actionable takeaways can also include process-oriented decisions: maybe more time should be allocated for polishing level design, or a third-party usability expert should be brought in earlier in the process. The key is to define specific actions rather than vaguely noting "improve onboarding" or "enhance level flow."

Key Benefits of Post-Mortem Playtests

Post-mortem playtests offer numerous benefits that make them a critical part of the development cycle. By analyzing both the successes and the shortcomings of a project, teams can gather invaluable insights that help refine their future projects. Let’s explore some of the key benefits:

Closing the Loop

Playtesting during development is invaluable for improving your game at the moment, but without post-mortems, the loop isn’t truly closed. Analyzing feedback without the pressure of upcoming milestones enables deeper insights. You can focus on understanding why certain features failed or succeeded and how they can be improved for future iterations.

Empowering the Team

A good post-mortem playtest encourages openness and honesty within the team. By making the process inclusive—where both successes and failures are shared—everyone gains ownership of the outcome. It’s important to avoid a blame game, focusing instead on cultivating a safe space for reflection. This openness can empower your team to be more innovative and less fearful of making mistakes in the future.

Institutional Memory

Keeping well-documented post-mortem reports and learnings forms a valuable "institutional memory" for your studio. This becomes especially vital as teams grow or new members join—ensuring that your past projects’ lessons are not lost but instead incorporated into future workflows and creative choices.

Avoiding Pitfalls: Common Mistakes in Post-Mortem Playtesting

However, warning! There are a few common traps that developers can fall into while conducting post-mortem playtests:

• Focusing Only on What Went Wrong: While the point is to identify mistakes, it’s equally important to highlight what worked. Understanding positive aspects helps you double down on strengths rather than simply avoiding errors.

• Not Setting Clear Objectives: Post-mortems must have specific objectives—whether it’s improving tutorial efficiency, onboarding new tools, or making core gameplay more intuitive. Without a clear focus, it’s easy to drown in too much feedback.

• Not Following Up: Finally, if there’s no follow-through, the post-mortem is meaningless. The entire team must be invested in turning insights into actual changes. Scheduling regular follow-ups to monitor progress on actionable takeaways can make a significant difference.

Learning and Evolving

Post-mortem playtests are a vital part of the game development cycle. By conducting these by using Lysto’s single session playtests. You will gain access to some research deep dives into what worked and what didn’t, studios can prevent the repetition of past mistakes and evolve their craft. To truly grow, teams need to be candid, organized, and most importantly, willing to change. This approach transforms mistakes into learning opportunities, ensuring that your next project starts from a stronger foundation.

If you’re a developer, consider making post-mortem playtests a routine part of your cycle—not as an afterthought, but as a core aspect of creating better experiences. After all, every mistake is a chance to learn, and every success is a guidepost to where your next game can soar.