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Playtest Analytics

Track every session, collect player feedback, and discover which parts of your game get the most action.

On This Page

→ Overview → Creating Playtest Sessions → Automatic Action Logging → Analytics Dashboard → Player Feedback System → Custom Feedback Form Questions → Exporting Data → Action Items → Best Practices

Overview

When a playtest room runs, every meaningful action is logged automatically — card draws, dice rolls, component interactions, joins, and leaves. That raw data is aggregated into an analytics dashboard tied to a Playtest Session record that you own and control.

Automatic (from Realtime Rooms)

  • Card draws and deck interactions
  • Dice rolls with actual face values
  • Component pick-ups, moves, flips, locks
  • Player joins and leaves with timestamps
  • Feedback scores submitted in-room

Manual (you record)

  • Player count
  • Session duration in minutes
  • Free-form session notes
  • Which project version was tested
  • Session name / label
  • Action items captured mid-session (see below)

Creating Playtest Sessions

Option A — Automatically from a Realtime Room

When you close a realtime playtest room, a session is automatically saved. The session contains all the action log data from that room. You'll land back on the session list page where you can view or edit the new entry.

The session is attached to the project that the room was created from. Action data is preserved even if the room was closed before players submitted feedback.

Option B — Create Manually

Create a session yourself after any playtest — in-person, on another platform, or any context where you want to track notes and feedback.

  1. Open your project → click Playtests tab
  2. Click + New Playtest
  3. Fill in: player count, duration (minutes), notes, and optionally the version tested
  4. Click Create Playtest

Renaming Sessions

On the session list, hover over a session name and click the pencil icon to rename it inline. Useful for labelling sessions like "Version 2 — Con Demo", "Remote Session — 4 Players", or "Balance Test — December".

Automatic Action Logging

During a realtime playtest session, the following actions are logged in the background without any extra steps from hosts or players:

Card Events

  • Card drawn (which card, from which deck, by whom)
  • Card played / used
  • Card added to hand
  • Card flipped

Dice Events

  • Die rolled (which die, what face came up, who rolled)
  • Coin flipped (heads/tails result)

Component Events

  • Object spawned from component panel
  • Object picked up / moved (high-frequency, aggregated)
  • Object locked / unlocked
  • Deck shuffled
  • Bag drawn from

Session Events

  • Player joined (name, timestamp)
  • Player left (name, timestamp)
  • Room created / closed
  • Feedback submitted by player

Privacy note: Action logs record the player's display name (the name they entered when joining) and the component name. No personal information beyond the chosen display name is stored.

Analytics Dashboard

Open any playtest session to view the full analytics dashboard. It's only visible if the session has logged actions (i.e., it was created from an active realtime room).

Quick Stats Bar

Top-line numbers at a glance:

Card Draws
total draw events
Card Uses
unique card interactions
Dice Rolls
total roll events
Components
total interactions

Card Draws by Deck

For every deck used during the session: total draws made, how many different players drew from it, and which unique cards came out. Use this to answer: "Was my Action Deck actually used? Are players ignoring certain decks?"

Dice Roll Statistics

For every distinct die type rolled: total rolls, average result, min and max seen, and a full distribution of every face value that came up. This verifies whether your real-play dice distribution matches theoretical expectations from the Probability Calculators.

Component Interaction Heatmap

A ranked table of every component touched during the session, sorted by total interactions. Shows: component name, type (card, die, token, board…), total interaction count, what actions happened (draw, flip, spawn, move…), and which players touched it. The most-interacted components rise to the top — the least-used fall to the bottom. Useful for spotting "dead" components that nobody picked up.

Most Used Cards (Visual)

A visual gallery showing the top 15 most-played cards with their card images, play counts (shown in a badge), and how many distinct players played each. Great for quick design review — helps you immediately see power imbalances or cards that were universally avoided.

Player Feedback System

How Players Submit Feedback

During a realtime playtest session, players can click the Submit Feedback button in the top bar at any time. The form includes:

  • Enjoyment Rating: 1–10 scale
  • Comments: Open-ended text field for detailed thoughts
  • What they liked best
  • What could be improved

Feedback is submitted anonymously under the player's chosen display name. Players can submit feedback multiple times (e.g., at the start and end of a game). Each submission is stored separately.

Viewing Feedback as a Designer

Open a playtest session → scroll to the Feedback section. All submissions are displayed with the player name, rating, and full comment text. The session overview card also shows the total feedback count at a glance.

Designer Tips for Getting Better Feedback

  • Ask players to submit feedback before leaving the room — it's easy to forget afterward
  • Run voice chat alongside the tabletop (Discord/Zoom) and take notes based on verbal reactions too
  • Give players specific questions to answer in the comments field ("Did turn order feel fair? Did the end game feel rushed?")
  • Compare feedback across multiple sessions of the same version to spot consistent themes

Custom Feedback Form Questions

Pro Feature

By default every playtest uses the built-in feedback form. With a Pro plan you can replace those default questions with your own — specific to each project. Custom questions let you collect targeted, structured data instead of generic comments.

Where to Set It Up

Navigate to your project page and click Customize in the Feedback Form card. You can also reach it from the Playtests list page (gear icon in the header) or from an individual playtest session (gear icon in the Player Feedback section header).

All playtests under that project will use your custom questions. Players see them in the same in-room feedback modal — nothing changes for them.

Question Types

Rating (1–10 scale)

Players pick a number. Ideal for "How balanced did this mechanic feel?"

Text

Open-ended written response. Good for qualitative impressions.

Yes / No

Binary choice. Quick to answer, easy to tally across sessions.

Select (multiple choice)

A dropdown of options you define. Great for "Which faction felt strongest?"

Managing Questions

  • Add as many questions as you need and drag to reorder them
  • Mark a question Required to prevent players from submitting without answering it
  • Use Reset to Default to restore the original built-in questions at any time
  • Changes take effect immediately — the next feedback submitted in any room for that project uses the new questions

Tips for Good Questions

  • Keep questions short — players fill this out while still in the headspace of the game
  • Use rating scales for anything you want to track trends on across sessions
  • Add one open-ended text question at the end for anything unexpected
  • Only mark questions as required if they're truly critical — too many required fields cause players to rush or skip feedback entirely

Exporting Data

Each playtest session can be exported in two formats from the session detail page:

CSV Export

Opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets. Contains rows for each logged event, player feedback entries, and session metadata. Useful for:

  • Tracking trends across multiple sessions in a spreadsheet
  • Sharing data with collaborators or co-designers
  • Creating custom charts outside the app

JSON Export

Full structured data dump of the session including all action events, feedback, and metadata. Useful for:

  • Programmatic analysis or custom tooling
  • Archiving complete session data
  • Importing into other data analysis tools

Component List Exports (Project-Level)

Separate from session exports, you can export your full component list from the project page. These are available under Export PDF (formatted bill of materials) and Export CSV (spreadsheet-ready component data). Find these on the project's main page or components page.

Action Items

A lightweight way to capture design notes during a session without interrupting play. Action items are only visible to the designer — never to players.

Creating an Action Item

In the realtime room, right-click the empty table → Add Action Item. Type your note and save. The item is immediately attached to the current playtest session and project.

See the Realtime Playtest guide for step-by-step instructions.

Where They Appear

  • Playtest session page — shown in its own section below session notes, linked to the session it was recorded during
  • Project dashboard — a paginated Action Items panel lists all items across all sessions, sorted open-first

Managing Action Items (Project Dashboard)

Mark Complete

Click the checkbox to mark an item done. Completed items move to the bottom with a strikethrough and a completion date.

Delete

Click ✕ to permanently remove an item. You'll be asked to confirm.

Session Link

Each item shows the session it came from. Click the session link to jump straight to that session's analytics page.

Workflow tip: Use action items for design changes to address between sessions — things like rule tweaks, balance adjustments, or component problems noticed mid-play. Then review them on the project dashboard before your next session to make sure you've addressed everything.

Best Practices

During the Session

  • Remind players to submit feedback before the room closes
  • Jot down quick notes in a side document during play — the session notes field is your place to capture them afterward
  • If you run the game twice with different setups, create a separate session for each

After the Session

  • Review the Component Interaction Heatmap — do the most-used components match your game's intended focus?
  • Check Dice Roll Statistics against your Probability Calculator results — are real rolls matching theory?
  • Name the session with a meaningful label so you can find it later
  • Export CSV if you track design progress in a separate spreadsheet

Spotting Design Problems

  • Near-zero interactions on a component → it's probably invisible or forgettable
  • One player dominates interactions → others may feel sidelined
  • Dice average far from theoretical → small sample size: run more sessions before tuning
  • Low feedback count → remind players more explicitly or make the button more visible

Iteration Workflow

  • Run 3–5 sessions before making major rule changes
  • Use the heatmap to identify under-used components before cutting them
  • Compare feedback ratings across versions to confirm improvements are real
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