<p>I'm pretty sure "Day and Night" was tested online before release. But the online game was only limited to a small beta testing audience. The website used to say that the online version would reappear at some point, but the website is now dead and the developers appear to have vanished.</p>

<p>Since Day and Night is an asymmetric game, getting the two sides balanced is important, and the developers claimed that they were very close to 50:50 based on online testing.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T13:43:25.693Z
2013-02-01T14:19:12.310Z
2013-02-01T14:19:12.310Z
Nick
<p>VASSAL offers a way to create on online version of a game easily. I was involved in play testing Crown of Roses using a VASSAL module. The map for Clash of Monarchs has been critised as being difficult to use and the reason provided for this was that most of the play testing was done online which had a much clearer map.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-02T05:09:25.880Z
2013-08-02T05:09:25.880Z
user5631
<p>Donald X. Vaccarino, the designer of Dominion, tested it with a program he wrote himself. Later expansions were playtested in a private room of the Isotropic online Dominion server. He discusses it briefly <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=3489.msg67085#msg67085" rel="nofollow">here</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I did not know Doug prior to him making isotropic; Wei-Hwa knew him. Before isotropic, I used a DOS program I wrote in Pascal, cbtest. It didn't do the internet part, we handled that via irc.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(Doug is dougz, the creator of the now-unavailable <a href="http://dominion.isotropic.org/" rel="nofollow">Isotropic Dominion</a>.)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-02T12:23:12.283Z
2013-08-02T12:23:12.283Z
sitnaltax
<p>I was a beta tester for a few of <a href="http://www.sirlin.net" rel="nofollow">David Sirlin</a>'s card games. Most of the beta testing was done online, in a combination of LackeyCCG and a very rough alpha web client for Yomi. I actually put some footage up on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SlebRittie" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a>.</p>

<p>Someone brought up the objection that writing an online client is much harder than just designing the game. While it's true to an extent, you can cut a lot of corners if you're just testing. You don't need a lot of flair, or rules enforcement, or even "something that isn't dog-ugly", and your early testers won't care because it's not a finished game anyway.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-17T04:24:07.300Z
2014-01-17T04:24:07.300Z
Free Monica Cellio
<p>A significant proportion of wargames released these days (e.g., by <a href="http://www.gmtgames.com" rel="nofollow">GMT</a>) is playtested using <a href="http://www.vassalengine.org" rel="nofollow">VASSAL</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-01T17:48:12.827Z
2014-01-16T20:10:31.440Z
2014-01-16T20:10:31.440Z
uckelman
<p>I am wondering if any game designers have used an online implementation of a game to balance and tweak it before commercial release.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T11:45:32.700Z
Apparently some Dominion cards have been play tested online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(card_game)#Online_Play
tttppp
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T14:56:59.010Z
As a software developer, creating an online implementation is many orders of magnitude more difficult than getting a group of people to playtest a physical game.  So you'd only do this if you wanted to release the online version simultaneously, which seems like putting the cart before the horse.
bwarner
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T14:57:19.883Z
**Any** designs, or any commercial designs? Are you only interested in rules design changes, or perhaps instruction rewrites, layout changes, etc. for clarity?
user1873
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T16:10:08.783Z
@bwarner you could imagine a kind of "game design funnel", where most games are rejected at a print and play stage.  Some promising candidates get turned into an online version for tweaking and balance.  The goal isn't just to minimize costs, you also want to produce something of quality.
rrenaud
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T16:10:37.787Z
@user1873 I clarified the question.  Certainly I am only interested in commercial games.
rrenaud
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T16:55:19.240Z
@rrenaud Imagine a very optimistic budget to create an online implementation of $20,000.  Then imagine how many playtest sessions of the physical game that you could get for half that amount.
bwarner
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-01T16:59:14.387Z
Game for game, an online play test is arguably better, since you have a perfect record of it.  Often times, quality online implementations are developed for no cost to the game designer (dominion.isotropic.org, keldon's RFTG implementation).  Imagine the online version is developed by a dedicated fan/hobbyist before the game is printed.
rrenaud
<game-design><online>
Has online play testing been an important part of any boardgame designs?
rrenaud
# Has online play testing been an important part of any boardgame designs?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-02-01)

I am wondering if any game designers have used an online implementation of a game to balance and tweak it before commercial release.

**Tags:** game-design, online

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Apparently some Dominion cards have been play tested online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_(card_game)#Online_Play  
> **username_2**: As a software developer, creating an online implementation is many orders of magnitude more difficult than getting a group of people to playtest a physical game.  So you'd only do this if you wanted to release the online version simultaneously, which seems like putting the cart before the horse.  
> **username_3**: **Any** designs, or any commercial designs? Are you only interested in rules design changes, or perhaps instruction rewrites, layout changes, etc. for clarity?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 you could imagine a kind of "game design funnel", where most games are rejected at a print and play stage.  Some promising candidates get turned into an online version for tweaking and balance.  The goal isn't just to minimize costs, you also want to produce something of quality.  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I clarified the question.  Certainly I am only interested in commercial games.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 Imagine a very optimistic budget to create an online implementation of $20,000.  Then imagine how many playtest sessions of the physical game that you could get for half that amount.  
> **username_0**: Game for game, an online play test is arguably better, since you have a perfect record of it.  Often times, quality online implementations are developed for no cost to the game designer (dominion.isotropic.org, keldon's RFTG implementation).  Imagine the online version is developed by a dedicated fan/hobbyist before the game is printed.  

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## 5 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-02-01. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

I'm pretty sure "Day and Night" was tested online before release. But the online game was only limited to a small beta testing audience. The website used to say that the online version would reappear at some point, but the website is now dead and the developers appear to have vanished.

Since Day and Night is an asymmetric game, getting the two sides balanced is important, and the developers claimed that they were very close to 50:50 based on online testing.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-08-02. Score: 4

VASSAL offers a way to create on online version of a game easily. I was involved in play testing Crown of Roses using a VASSAL module. The map for Clash of Monarchs has been critised as being difficult to use and the reason provided for this was that most of the play testing was done online which had a much clearer map.


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### Answer by username_6 on 2013-08-02. Score: 3

Donald X. Vaccarino, the designer of Dominion, tested it with a program he wrote himself. Later expansions were playtested in a private room of the Isotropic online Dominion server. He discusses it briefly [here](http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=3489.msg67085#msg67085):

> I did not know Doug prior to him making isotropic; Wei-Hwa knew him. Before isotropic, I used a DOS program I wrote in Pascal, cbtest. It didn't do the internet part, we handled that via irc.

(Doug is dougz, the creator of the now-unavailable [Isotropic Dominion](http://dominion.isotropic.org/).)


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### Answer by username_7 on 2014-01-17. Score: 2

I was a beta tester for a few of [David Sirlin](http://www.sirlin.net)'s card games. Most of the beta testing was done online, in a combination of LackeyCCG and a very rough alpha web client for Yomi. I actually put some footage up on [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/user/SlebRittie).

Someone brought up the objection that writing an online client is much harder than just designing the game. While it's true to an extent, you can cut a lot of corners if you're just testing. You don't need a lot of flair, or rules enforcement, or even "something that isn't dog-ugly", and your early testers won't care because it's not a finished game anyway.


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### Answer by username_8 on 2014-01-01. Score: 1

A significant proportion of wargames released these days (e.g., by [GMT](http://www.gmtgames.com)) is playtested using [VASSAL](http://www.vassalengine.org).


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