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How do you collect useful playtest feedback from itch.io players?

A topic by Xia Yu | Indie Game Playtesting created 54 days ago Views: 252 Replies: 4

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Xia Yu | Indie Game Playtesting54 days ago

I’ve been looking at how indie developers collect feedback when they share early builds on itch.io.

The part I’m trying to understand is what happens after a player leaves a comment like:

“I got stuck here.”

“The tutorial was confusing.”

“Something broke.”

The feedback may be genuine, but it can be difficult to act on when you don’t know which build they played, where it happened, what device or browser they used, or how to reproduce it.

How are you handling this now?

Do players leave comments on itch.io, join a Discord server, fill out a form, send an email, or use an in-game reporting button?

If you’ve already run a playtest, what information do you most often have to ask for afterward?

I’m also curious about where the useful boundary is. Would you prefer:

a simple structured report page
an in-game button that automatically includes build and device details
a managed playtest summary
or just continuing with Discord and Google Forms

I’m not sharing a product link. I’m trying to work out whether missing context is a serious enough problem to solve separately, or simply an annoying part of running a playtest.

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Evolutionary Games54 days ago(+2)

You can reply to comments and ask for clarification.

The itch.io community isn't here to beta test your game, so asking us to fill in extra forms etc, is a big ask. If someone does leave meaningful feedback, well the planets lined up for you that day - that's all.

As for the build, that's your job. You should be able to tell which build they played based on the when they left the comment and if you're releasing so many builds that you can't tell, you should probably spend more time testing or polishing your own game before releasing it.

If you receive a comment that the tutorial is confusing: Imagine that you know nothing of the game and you must play it based on the tutorial instructions alone. How far would you get?

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Xia Yu | Indie Game Playtesting54 days ago

That’s fair. I was probably treating casual itch.io comments too much like reports from a structured playtest.

Asking someone who voluntarily left a short comment to fill in another form would likely create more friction than useful context. Your point about the build is fair as well. For a public itch.io page with one current build, the comment timestamp should normally be enough.

I was partly thinking about closed tests where different builds are sent to different testers, but that is a different workflow from normal itch.io comments.

The tutorial example is useful. It sounds like the developer should first try to reproduce the player’s experience with no prior knowledge, then ask one focused follow-up question only if necessary.

When you receive a vague but potentially useful comment, do you normally ask for clarification in the same thread, or just investigate it yourself?

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Evolutionary Games53 days ago(+1)

I've replied to a comment to ask for clarification - but received none. Most of my games / assets have zero comments.

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Xia Yu | Indie Game Playtesting53 days ago

That’s useful context. It sounds like the bigger problem on itch.io is getting any feedback at all, rather than organizing it once it arrives. A more detailed reporting form wouldn’t help if players aren’t commenting in the first place. Thanks for clarifying.

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