Skip to main content
All CollectionsWriting Surveys
Survey questions for running great playtests
Survey questions for running great playtests

A selection of tried-and-tested survey questions to use and adapt for your own playtests

Gareth Lloyd avatar
Written by Gareth Lloyd
Updated over a week ago

When building surveys, we may design new questions for the current survey, or use question sets that we or others have created through extensive research.

It can be useful to source questions or take inspiration from survey questions that have worked well in the past. Here are some that we have seen used to good effect in other surveys.

General survey questions for all types of games

First some general questions that could be applied to the widest possible set of games.

How often did you feel frustrated while playing?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Never

2 – Rarely

3 – Sometimes

4 – Often

5 – Always

How often did you feel bored while playing?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Never

2 – Rarely

3 – Sometimes

4 – Often

5 – Always

How often did you feel confused while playing?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Never

2 – Rarely

3 – Sometimes

4 – Often

5 – Always

How often did you feel that you wanted to stop playing?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Never

2 – Rarely

3 – Sometimes

4 – Often

5 – Always

Overall, did you find the game enjoyable or unenjoyable?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Very unenjoyable
2 – Unenjoyable
3 – Somewhat unenjoyable
4 – Neither enjoyable or unenjoyable

5 – Somewhat enjoyable
6 – Enjoyable
7 – Very enjoyable

Is this a game that seems made 'for you'?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Not at all for me
2 – Not for me
3 – Slightly not for me
4 – Neither 'for me' or 'not for me'

5 – Slightly for me
6 – For me
7 – Essential for me

If you were not in a playtest, would you have chosen to play this game?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Very unlikely
2 – Unlikely
3 – Slightly unlikely
4 – Neither likely nor unlikely

5 – Slightly likely
6 – Likely
7 – Very likely

If you were not in a playtest, would you continue to play this game after today's session?

Multiple choice (single selection)

1 – Very unlikely
2 – Unlikely
3 – Slightly unlikely
4 – Neither likely nor unlikely

5 – Slightly likely
6 – Likely
7 – Very likely

If you had review the game you played today with a score out of 10, what score would you give it?

Rating scale

1 [low] to 10 [high]

Note

Where possible, we try to provide survey response option scales that include:

  • Seven response points, in order to provide a good trade off between granularity and ease of response, and for the reasons below.

  • A central neutral option,

  • A bipolar scale, with negative and positive responses on either side of the neutral.

This structure allows us to assign positive, negative or neutral scores to responses (from -3 to +3) which can be helpful in visualising and communicating outcomes later on.

Some of the questions shown are reverse-coded: that is, where a higher response/rating implies a less desirable outcome. If you need to directly compare these questions with others that are not reverse coded, then scores will need to be flipped in analysis.

Did this answer your question?