This is a reusable set of user testing questions for playtests. It is organized by when you ask each question: before the session, during play, after a task, and at the end. It also covers rating scales, open-text prompts, and the two problems that spoil most playtest answers, leading questions and recall decay. Every example is written for a game, because usability testing questions written for websites tend to get the wrong kind of answer.

Copy what you need. Change the wording to match your game.

Before you write the questions

Write down the decision the playtest is meant to inform, in one sentence. "Find out whether new players understand the crafting screen before the first boss" gives you something to write questions against. "Get feedback on the game" does not.

Every question in your script should help answer that one sentence. If a question would be interesting to know but would not change the decision, cut it. Each extra question costs attention, and participants have less of it than you expect.

If this is your team's first playtest, our Beginner's Guide to FTUE Playtesting covers the steps around the script: the objective, recruitment, session design, and analysis.

Pre-session questions

Pre-session questions do two jobs. They confirm the participant fits the profile you recruited for, and they give you context for reading their session later. Keep this part to three to five minutes.

Play history

• What games have you played on your phone in the past month?

• Which of those do you play most often? Roughly how long is a typical session?

• Have you played [your game] or [a close competitor] before?

• What made you stop playing the last mobile game you uninstalled?

Expectations

• Based on the store page or screenshot you saw, what do you think this game is about?

• What do you expect to be doing in the first few minutes?

Device and context

• What device are you playing on today?

• Where are you playing from? (Home, commute, break at work.)

The expectations questions matter more than they look. If a participant expects a relaxing puzzle game and your tutorial opens with a timed boss fight, their reaction to that fight means something different from the reaction of someone who expected action.

Avoid asking participants to rate their own skill. "How good are you at strategy games?" produces answers shaped by modesty and pride more than by ability. Their play history tells you more.

In-task questions

In-task questions happen while the participant is playing. They are the most useful questions in the set, and the easiest to get wrong, because every question you ask during play changes how the participant plays.

Use them sparingly, and only in moderated sessions where a researcher can choose the moment. In unmoderated sessions, leave play uninterrupted and ask afterward.

When the participant pauses or hesitates

• What are you looking for right now?

• What do you think will happen if you tap that?

When the participant fails or retries

• What happened there?

• What would you try next?

When the participant reaches a new screen

• What is this screen for?

• What would you do first here?

Think-aloud prompt (once, at the start)

• As you play, say out loud whatever you're thinking, even if it seems obvious.

Think-aloud has a cost in games. Talking while playing a fast game splits attention, so participants play slower and more carefully than they would alone. It works well for menus, shops, and turn-based games, and poorly for anything where reaction time matters. For an action game, consider letting the participant play in silence and asking about specific moments afterward, with the recording in front of both of you.

Do not explain anything during the session. If a participant asks "Am I supposed to tap this?", answer with "What do you think?" and note the moment. A participant who needs help at a given point in the tutorial is a finding.

Post-task questions

Post-task questions come straight after a defined section of play: the tutorial, the first battle, the first visit to the shop. Ask them while the experience is fresh. They are the main defense against recall decay, which is covered below.

Understanding

• In your own words, what were you supposed to do in that level?

• How do you earn [currency] in this game?

• What does the [icon or meter] at the top of the screen show?

Difficulty

• Was there a moment in that section where you weren't sure what to do? Where?

• Was there a moment where you knew what to do but couldn't pull it off?

The two difficulty questions are deliberately separate. The first finds confusion. The second finds challenge. Both make players slow down and both can make them quit, but they need different fixes. Reducing difficulty at a confusion point fixes nothing, and reducing it at a challenge point can remove what kept players playing.

Moment recall

• What's one moment from that section that stuck with you?

• Was there any point where you wanted to stop?

Task-specific examples

• After a tutorial: What's one thing the tutorial taught you that you used afterward?

• After a shop visit: If you were going to buy one thing in that shop, what would it be? What would stop you?

• After a first PvP match: How did you decide who to attack first?

• After a level-up screen: What changed for your character, if anything?

Post-session questions

Post-session questions close the playtest. They cover the whole experience, intent to return, and anything the participant wants to add. Keep this part to five to 10 minutes.

Overall experience

• How would you describe this game to a friend who hasn't played it?

• What did you enjoy most? What did you enjoy least?

• Was there anything you expected to be able to do but couldn't?

Comparison

• How does this compare to [the game they named in the pre-session]?

Intent

• If this game were on your phone tomorrow, would you open it again? What would make you open it?

• What would you want to do next if you kept playing?

Open close

• Is there anything we didn't ask about that you'd like to mention?

Treat intent questions carefully. A participant saying they would come back is a different thing from coming back, and a playtest only measures the first. It is still worth asking, because the reasons participants give ("I want to see what the next area looks like") tell you what the game made them want.

Scales

Rating scales let you compare answers across participants and across builds. Use a few, use them the same way every time, and always pair them with an open follow-up.

Recommended scales

Statements that work on an agreement scale

• I understood what I was supposed to do in the tutorial.

• The controls felt responsive.

• I knew how to earn more [currency].

• I wanted to keep playing when the session ended.

• The shop was easy to understand.

Rules for scales

• Use the same scale for the same kind of question across every playtest, so results from one build can be compared with the next.

• Label every point, or at least both ends. Unlabeled midpoints mean different things to different people.

• Follow every scale with "Why did you choose that?" The number tells you where to look, and the reason usually shows what to change.

• With five or six participants, report scale answers as counts ("four of six chose Hard"), not averages. An average of 3.7 from six people suggests more precision than the data holds.

Open-text questions

Open-text questions are where participants say things you did not think to ask about. In a written playtest feedback form, they also take the most effort, so place them where participants still have energy.

Prompts that produce detail

• Describe a moment where you felt [stuck / excited / bored]. What was happening on screen?

• If you could change one thing about the first 10 minutes, what would it be?

• What confused you, even briefly?

• What would you tell the developers if you were sure they wouldn't be offended?

Prompts that produce very little

• Any feedback?

• What did you think?

• Did you like the game?

Specific prompts give participants something to hold on to. "Describe a moment where you felt stuck" asks for a scene. ‘Any feedback?’ leaves the participant to decide what matters.

Leading questions

A leading question suggests its own answer. Participants want to be helpful and polite, and they will often give the answer the question seems to want.

Watch for three patterns:

• Named features. Asking about "the new combat system" tells participants it is new and that you care about it.

• Built-in adjectives. "Too long", "easy", and "exciting" set the frame before the participant answers.

• Yes or no endings. "Did you…?" and "Was it…?" invite a one-word reply, and the polite one is usually yes.

A useful check: read each question and ask whether a participant could tell what answer you hope for. If they could, rewrite it.

Recall decay

Memory of a play session fades quickly and unevenly. Participants remember the most intense moment and the ending well, and the middle poorly. Part of this is the Peak-End Rule, and it means a post-session question about a tutorial that ended 20 minutes earlier is partly asking about the boss fight that came after it. 

Recall decay affects which questions you can trust at which point:

• Ask about a section straight after it ends. This is why post-task questions exist. "What happened in that level?" asked at the end of a 30-minute session gets a story built from the highlights.

• Use the recording as a prompt. Showing a participant a 10-second clip of their own play and asking "What were you thinking here?" recovers more than asking them to remember the moment unprompted.

• Treat end-of-session ratings as summaries of the peak and the end. A participant who had a dull 10 minutes followed by an exciting final level will often rate the whole session as exciting.

• Ask about the experience, not the reason. "What happened when you got to the bridge?" holds up better over time than "Why did you stop exploring?" Reasons are often rebuilt after the fact.

Some of what happens in a session never reaches words at all. Across our own studies, 50% of in-game emotional responses never appear in what participants say in surveys or interviews. That is why at Emhance we measure emotional intensity and concentration during play, second by second, and use the debrief to ask about the moments the data flagged. The questions in this guide work with or without that kind of measurement. They work better when you know which moments to ask about. See how Emhance playtesting works.

A playtest feedback form you can copy

This is a short written form for an unmoderated playtest of a mobile game's first session. It takes about eight minutes to complete.

Section 1: About you

1.Which mobile games have you played in the past month?

2.Before today, had you played [game name]? (Yes / No)

3.What device did you play on?

Section 2: The first few minutes

4."I understood what I was supposed to do in the tutorial." (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree)

5.Why did you choose that answer?

6.Was there a moment where you weren't sure what to do? If yes, describe what was on screen.

Section 3: Playing the game

7.How difficult was the game overall? (Very easy to Very hard)

8.Describe a moment where you felt excited or focused. What was happening?

9.Describe a moment where you felt bored or wanted to stop. What was happening?

Section 4: Overall

10.How enjoyable was the session? (1 to 7)

11.How would you describe this game to a friend?

12.How likely are you to play again tomorrow? (0 to 10)

13.What would make you open it again?

14.If you could change one thing, what would it be?

15.Anything else you'd like to tell us?

For the method behind choosing a question set like this, see game user research: what it is and what teams use it for and playtesting methods: which one answers which question.

If you'd rather not run sessions yourself, Emhance playtests include recruitment from our gamer panels or your own players, interviews before and after play, and second-by-second engagement analysis. Book a demo to see one on your own game.