December 19, 2007: Munchkin Quest In The Office

Munchkin Quest is seeing a bit of activity this week, as we're adding extra in-house playtests to hammer out the last few kinks before the full-scale blindtest stage.

What's a blindtest? Most companies stick to standard playtesting, where the designer or his proxy sits down with a group and plays the game. A blindtest takes this one step further. A group sits down and plays the game, but the designer and his proxy -- indeed, anyone who worked on the drafts -- just sits and watches. No hints, no rules questions, no nothing -- just observation.

It's difficult, because the developers always want to tweak things, and watching a group struggle with a poorly written rule can make you crazy. But it's also very important, because the rule that "everyone" understood isn't really that clear when the guy who wrote it isn't there to clarify.

We don't do it for every product, but we definitely do it for the unusual ones, and the important ones. And you can bet that we consider Munchkin Quest both.
-- Paul Chapman

Share this post!