I’ve been spending a lot of time in online creator communities lately, and a recurring conversation is people struggling to get useful feedback on their games.

Alongside that, I keep seeing versions of the same (very problematic) advice:

“Don’t listen to feedback.”
“People will only comment on the part of the game that interests them.”
“Trust your gut.”

I understand the instinct behind it. You should not blindly implement every suggestion someone makes about your game.

But I think this (very bad) advice comes mostly from amateur designers who do not understand the process behind game research (understandably so). It can make newcomers dismiss player feedback before they have learned how to set up a playtest that allows them to collect useful data.

It is such a crucial part of game development that I felt like writing about it, mostly to help creator folks in their exciting journey of making games others will want to play :)

The good news is that getting good at playtesting is just another skill you can practice and master, and it is one you really shouldn't sleep on! So I compiled a 3 points list for you that I condensed from years of conducting playtests for both my job in the video game industry and my indie experience.

Hopefully it will help!

1. Go into a playtest knowing what you want to learn

One of the biggest mistakes I see is trying to test the whole game (or huge chunks of it) at once too early.

If you sit someone down with your game and simply ask, “What did you think?”, you might get some interesting comments, but it will be hard to know what to do with them. You are asking them to react to an entire experience, with no shared focus. It's a hard thing to do!

Instead, go into each playtest with a specific question you want to answer. You should gently guide your players and nudge them toward a specific area of focus.

Maybe you want to know:

• Do players understand the core loop?
• Does this combat system create interesting decisions?
• Are players getting lost during character creation?
• Does this particular mechanic create the feeling you intended?

I usually think of these as hypotheses, but you don't have to, it can just be simple questions around how you expect your game to behave. You have an idea about how a system will work or feel for players, and the playtest is your chance to validate that your assumption is true.

The more focused your question is, the more actionable the feedback is likely to be.

2. Guide your players towards the thing you are testing

Once you know what you are trying to learn, guide both the playtest and the feedback session around it.

That does not mean telling people what to say, or trying to get them to agree with you. It means making sure they actually spend time with the part of the game you are observing, then asking questions that help you understand their experience of it afterward.

A healthy playtest dataset is a combination of written observations and collected answer to targeted questions.

You do not need to treat every part of the session equally. If you are testing a particular mechanic, spend most of the time observing that mechanic. Skim past the parts that are not useful to the question you are trying to answer.

Then, during feedback, keep bringing the conversation back to your hypothesis:

• What did you expect to happen here?
• What made you choose that?
• What was confusing?
• Did this feel like the experience the game is trying to create?

You should still leave space for open feedback at the end. Players may notice something important that you were not looking for.

But focused questions come first. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of feedback that is not bad, just unrelated to the thing you currently need to understand or improve.

3. Learn how to turn feedback into action

The final skill is learning how to interpret what players are telling you. And that is the hardest part my friends.

Players are experts in their own experience, but they are not necessarily experts in diagnosing your game or designing its solution. So when someone says, “This was boring,” “I didn’t get it,” or “I wish there were more options,” do not treat that as an instruction to implement exactly what they suggested.

Treat it as evidence.

Your job is to work out what created that feeling. Were they bored because the choices were too obvious? Did they not understand the rule because the explanation was unclear, or because the game did not give them a good opportunity to use it? Are they asking for more options because the existing ones do not feel distinct enough?

This is the loop: build something, test a focused question, learn from what players experienced, then decide what to change next.

You will not always get it right immediately, and that is fine. The point is to build the habit of turning player experience into a clearer next experiment, not of blindly following every suggestion, or dismissing feedback altogether.

Conclusion

Playtesting is not just getting a few people in a room and asking whether they liked your game.

It means being deliberate: deciding what you need to learn, creating a session that helps you learn it, and getting better at turning player experience into useful next steps.

You do not need a huge budget or a research lab to start practising it. You just need to be deliberate about your testing process and start honing those skills like any other.

If you are curious to get more insight or support to push your project forward, I run a small Discord community for my players and other game creators where we support each other. Come make games with us:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

And if you are wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm rambling about making games, here is my Linkedin profile -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/

I’ve been spending a lot of time in online creator communities lately, and a recurring conversation is people struggling to get useful feedback on their games.

Alongside that, I keep seeing versions of the same (very problematic) advice:

“Don’t listen to feedback.”
“People will only comment on the part of the game that interests them.”
“Trust your gut.”

I understand the instinct behind it. You should not blindly implement every suggestion someone makes about your game.

But I think this (very bad) advice comes mostly from amateur designers who do not understand the process behind game research (understandably so). It can make newcomers dismiss player feedback before they have learned how to set up a playtest that allows them to collect useful data.

It is such a crucial part of game development that I felt like writing about it, mostly to help creator folks in their exciting journey of making games others will want to play :)

The good news is that getting good at playtesting is just another skill you can practice and master, and it is one you really shouldn't sleep on! So I compiled a 3 points list for you that I condensed from years of conducting playtests for both my job in the video game industry and my indie experience.

Hopefully it will help!

1. Go into a playtest knowing what you want to learn

One of the biggest mistakes I see is trying to test the whole game (or huge chunks of it) at once too early.

If you sit someone down with your game and simply ask, “What did you think?”, you might get some interesting comments, but it will be hard to know what to do with them. You are asking them to react to an entire experience, with no shared focus. It's a hard thing to do!

Instead, go into each playtest with a specific question you want to answer. You should gently guide your players and nudge them toward a specific area of focus.

Maybe you want to know:

• Do players understand the core loop?
• Does this combat system create interesting decisions?
• Are players getting lost during character creation?
• Does this particular mechanic create the feeling you intended?

I usually think of these as hypotheses, but you don't have to, it can just be simple questions around how you expect your game to behave. You have an idea about how a system will work or feel for players, and the playtest is your chance to validate that your assumption is true.

The more focused your question is, the more actionable the feedback is likely to be.

2. Guide your players towards the thing you are testing

Once you know what you are trying to learn, guide both the playtest and the feedback session around it.

That does not mean telling people what to say, or trying to get them to agree with you. It means making sure they actually spend time with the part of the game you are observing, then asking questions that help you understand their experience of it afterward.

A healthy playtest dataset is a combination of written observations and collected answer to targeted questions.

You do not need to treat every part of the session equally. If you are testing a particular mechanic, spend most of the time observing that mechanic. Skim past the parts that are not useful to the question you are trying to answer.

Then, during feedback, keep bringing the conversation back to your hypothesis:

• What did you expect to happen here?
• What made you choose that?
• What was confusing?
• Did this feel like the experience the game is trying to create?

You should still leave space for open feedback at the end. Players may notice something important that you were not looking for.

But focused questions come first. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of feedback that is not bad, just unrelated to the thing you currently need to understand or improve.

3. Learn how to turn feedback into action

The final skill is learning how to interpret what players are telling you. And that is the hardest part my friends.

Players are experts in their own experience, but they are not necessarily experts in diagnosing your game or designing its solution. So when someone says, “This was boring,” “I didn’t get it,” or “I wish there were more options,” do not treat that as an instruction to implement exactly what they suggested.

Treat it as evidence.

Your job is to work out what created that feeling. Were they bored because the choices were too obvious? Did they not understand the rule because the explanation was unclear, or because the game did not give them a good opportunity to use it? Are they asking for more options because the existing ones do not feel distinct enough?

This is the loop: build something, test a focused question, learn from what players experienced, then decide what to change next.

You will not always get it right immediately, and that is fine. The point is to build the habit of turning player experience into a clearer next experiment, not of blindly following every suggestion, or dismissing feedback altogether.

Conclusion

Playtesting is not just getting a few people in a room and asking whether they liked your game.

It means being deliberate: deciding what you need to learn, creating a session that helps you learn it, and getting better at turning player experience into useful next steps.

You do not need a huge budget or a research lab to start practising it. You just need to be deliberate about your testing process and start honing those skills like any other.

If you are curious to get more insight or support to push your project forward, I run a small Discord community for my players and other game creators where we support each other. Come make games with us:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

And if you are wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm rambling about making games, here is my Linkedin profile -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/

I’ve been spending a lot of time in online creator communities lately, and a recurring conversation is people struggling to get useful feedback on their games.

Alongside that, I keep seeing versions of the same (very problematic) advice:

“Don’t listen to feedback.”
“People will only comment on the part of the game that interests them.”
“Trust your gut.”

I understand the instinct behind it. You should not blindly implement every suggestion someone makes about your game.

But I think this (very bad) advice comes mostly from amateur designers who do not understand the process behind game research (understandably so). It can make newcomers dismiss player feedback before they have learned how to set up a playtest that allows them to collect useful data.

It is such a crucial part of game development that I felt like writing about it, mostly to help creator folks in their exciting journey of making games others will want to play :)

The good news is that getting good at playtesting is just another skill you can practice and master, and it is one you really shouldn't sleep on! So I compiled a 3 points list for you that I condensed from years of conducting playtests for both my job in the video game industry and my indie experience.

Hopefully it will help!

1. Go into a playtest knowing what you want to learn

One of the biggest mistakes I see is trying to test the whole game (or huge chunks of it) at once too early.

If you sit someone down with your game and simply ask, “What did you think?”, you might get some interesting comments, but it will be hard to know what to do with them. You are asking them to react to an entire experience, with no shared focus. It's a hard thing to do!

Instead, go into each playtest with a specific question you want to answer. You should gently guide your players and nudge them toward a specific area of focus.

Maybe you want to know:

• Do players understand the core loop?
• Does this combat system create interesting decisions?
• Are players getting lost during character creation?
• Does this particular mechanic create the feeling you intended?

I usually think of these as hypotheses, but you don't have to, it can just be simple questions around how you expect your game to behave. You have an idea about how a system will work or feel for players, and the playtest is your chance to validate that your assumption is true.

The more focused your question is, the more actionable the feedback is likely to be.

2. Guide your players towards the thing you are testing

Once you know what you are trying to learn, guide both the playtest and the feedback session around it.

That does not mean telling people what to say, or trying to get them to agree with you. It means making sure they actually spend time with the part of the game you are observing, then asking questions that help you understand their experience of it afterward.

A healthy playtest dataset is a combination of written observations and collected answer to targeted questions.

You do not need to treat every part of the session equally. If you are testing a particular mechanic, spend most of the time observing that mechanic. Skim past the parts that are not useful to the question you are trying to answer.

Then, during feedback, keep bringing the conversation back to your hypothesis:

• What did you expect to happen here?
• What made you choose that?
• What was confusing?
• Did this feel like the experience the game is trying to create?

You should still leave space for open feedback at the end. Players may notice something important that you were not looking for.

But focused questions come first. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of feedback that is not bad, just unrelated to the thing you currently need to understand or improve.

3. Learn how to turn feedback into action

The final skill is learning how to interpret what players are telling you. And that is the hardest part my friends.

Players are experts in their own experience, but they are not necessarily experts in diagnosing your game or designing its solution. So when someone says, “This was boring,” “I didn’t get it,” or “I wish there were more options,” do not treat that as an instruction to implement exactly what they suggested.

Treat it as evidence.

Your job is to work out what created that feeling. Were they bored because the choices were too obvious? Did they not understand the rule because the explanation was unclear, or because the game did not give them a good opportunity to use it? Are they asking for more options because the existing ones do not feel distinct enough?

This is the loop: build something, test a focused question, learn from what players experienced, then decide what to change next.

You will not always get it right immediately, and that is fine. The point is to build the habit of turning player experience into a clearer next experiment, not of blindly following every suggestion, or dismissing feedback altogether.

Conclusion

Playtesting is not just getting a few people in a room and asking whether they liked your game.

It means being deliberate: deciding what you need to learn, creating a session that helps you learn it, and getting better at turning player experience into useful next steps.

You do not need a huge budget or a research lab to start practising it. You just need to be deliberate about your testing process and start honing those skills like any other.

If you are curious to get more insight or support to push your project forward, I run a small Discord community for my players and other game creators where we support each other. Come make games with us:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

And if you are wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm rambling about making games, here is my Linkedin profile -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/

I’m Aram, and I designed a TTRPG called Pocket Party.

If you remember what it felt like watching 90s adventure cartoons, stuff like Jumanji, Digimon, The Magic School Bus, Recess, or any story where a bunch of kids suddenly end up somewhere impossible, I think you might like this game.

Pocket Party is a whimsical story game about kids stumbling into pocket dimensions born from their own imagination.

Each player creates one of those pocket dimensions, and then the group expands them together through play. You discover the lore, weird rules, dangers, characters, and little wonders of each world by actually adventuring through them.

You can read the SRD here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

The core mechanic is built around custom cards created by the players.

Those cards are not just modifiers or resources. They are storytelling prompts. When a character tries to do something difficult, you build a little stack of cards based on what could help them overcome the challenge. The GM adds Trouble Cards, then the player draws two.

Very roughly:

- two Hero Cards is a Triumph
- one Hero Card and one Trouble Card is a Climax, with a dice roll to see how it resolves
- two Trouble Cards is a Fiasco

The part I really like is that the cards help everyone improvise what happens next. They don’t just say “you succeed” or “you fail”; they give the table something to narrate from.

And when players draw their own Hero Cards, they get to narrate the outcome themselves, so it becomes a lot more player-driven and not everything sits on the GM’s shoulders.

If you want the exact Action Draw rules, they’re here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/drawing-cards/

Pocket Party has been played a bunch of times now, and people seem to really enjoy it, but I’d love for more folks to pick it up, read it, try it, and tell me what works or doesn’t.

The main thing I’m curious about is:

Would you feel comfortable running it from the SRD?

Are the rules clear enough? Does the card resolution make sense? Does the game give you enough to bring it to a table?

I’m also working on my second game, Fireflies, which is a psychedelic caravan fantasy TTRPG about colour-bound travellers, magical substances, dangerous night roads, and a dice bag that changes as the journey gets stranger.

If you are interested in any of this and would love to know more, I run a tight community Discord server. We are currently around 60 people, sharing what they’re making, encouraging each other, and talking game making:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

Would love any thoughts, questions, or feedback.

Hi folks,

I’m Aram, and I designed a TTRPG called Pocket Party.

If you remember what it felt like watching 90s adventure cartoons, stuff like Jumanji, Digimon, The Magic School Bus, Recess, or any story where a bunch of kids suddenly end up somewhere impossible, I think you might like this game.

Pocket Party is a whimsical story game about kids stumbling into pocket dimensions born from their own imagination.

Each player creates one of those pocket dimensions, and then the group expands them together through play. You discover the lore, weird rules, dangers, characters, and little wonders of each world by actually adventuring through them.

You can read the SRD here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

The core mechanic is built around custom cards created by the players.

Those cards are not just modifiers or resources. They are storytelling prompts. When a character tries to do something difficult, you build a little stack of cards based on what could help them overcome the challenge. The GM adds Trouble Cards, then the player draws two.

Very roughly:

- two Hero Cards is a Triumph
- one Hero Card and one Trouble Card is a Climax, with a dice roll to see how it resolves
- two Trouble Cards is a Fiasco

The part I really like is that the cards help everyone improvise what happens next. They don’t just say “you succeed” or “you fail”; they give the table something to narrate from.

And when players draw their own Hero Cards, they get to narrate the outcome themselves, so it becomes a lot more player-driven and not everything sits on the GM’s shoulders.

If you want the exact Action Draw rules, they’re here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/drawing-cards/

Pocket Party has been played a bunch of times now, and people seem to really enjoy it, but I’d love for more folks to pick it up, read it, try it, and tell me what works or doesn’t.

The main thing I’m curious about is:

Would you feel comfortable running it from the SRD?

Are the rules clear enough? Does the card resolution make sense? Does the game give you enough to bring it to a table?

I’m also working on my second game, Fireflies, which is a psychedelic caravan fantasy TTRPG about colour-bound travellers, magical substances, dangerous night roads, and a dice bag that changes as the journey gets stranger.

If you are interested in any of this and would love to know more, I run a tight community Discord server. We are currently around 60 people, sharing what they’re making, encouraging each other, and talking game making:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

Would love any thoughts, questions, or feedback.

Hi folks,

I’m Aram, and I designed a TTRPG called Pocket Party.

If you remember what it felt like watching 90s adventure cartoons, stuff like Jumanji, Digimon, The Magic School Bus, Recess, or any story where a bunch of kids suddenly end up somewhere impossible, I think you might like this game.

Pocket Party is a whimsical story game about kids stumbling into pocket dimensions born from their own imagination.

Each player creates one of those pocket dimensions, and then the group expands them together through play. You discover the lore, weird rules, dangers, characters, and little wonders of each world by actually adventuring through them.

You can read the SRD here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

The core mechanic is built around custom cards created by the players.

Those cards are not just modifiers or resources. They are storytelling prompts. When a character tries to do something difficult, you build a little stack of cards based on what could help them overcome the challenge. The GM adds Trouble Cards, then the player draws two.

Very roughly:

- two Hero Cards is a Triumph
- one Hero Card and one Trouble Card is a Climax, with a dice roll to see how it resolves
- two Trouble Cards is a Fiasco

The part I really like is that the cards help everyone improvise what happens next. They don’t just say “you succeed” or “you fail”; they give the table something to narrate from.

And when players draw their own Hero Cards, they get to narrate the outcome themselves, so it becomes a lot more player-driven and not everything sits on the GM’s shoulders.

If you want the exact Action Draw rules, they’re here:

https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/drawing-cards/

Pocket Party has been played a bunch of times now, and people seem to really enjoy it, but I’d love for more folks to pick it up, read it, try it, and tell me what works or doesn’t.

The main thing I’m curious about is:

Would you feel comfortable running it from the SRD?

Are the rules clear enough? Does the card resolution make sense? Does the game give you enough to bring it to a table?

I’m also working on my second game, Fireflies, which is a psychedelic caravan fantasy TTRPG about colour-bound travellers, magical substances, dangerous night roads, and a dice bag that changes as the journey gets stranger.

If you are interested in any of this and would love to know more, I run a tight community discord server! We are currently around 60 people, sharing what they’re making, encouraging each other, and talking game making:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

Would love any thoughts, questions, or feedback.

Hi folks,

I’m working on a TTRPG called Fireflies!, and I’m looking for references specifically around dice bag building systems.

Fireflies! is a psychedelic caravan roleplaying game about colour-bound travellers consuming bizarre magical substances and venturing down night roads to help scattered settlements survive in a desolated world.

You build a caravan with your friends, become magic junkies, and try to save communities while slowly becoming harder for ordinary people to understand.

Because the game is about both literal journeys and psychedelic inner trips, a dice bag felt like the right core mechanic. During a single journey, characters consume glows and encounter unsettling events that add different dice to the bag, so the bag becomes a snapshot of their current state, risks, and pressures for that night.

Very roughly, when a character takes action:

• the number of dice they pull depends on their ability to overcome the challenge, including skills, tools, preparation, and other advantages
• the outcome depends in part on whether the dice they pulled match the glow of the action they’re attempting
• then they roll their d6s against a DC, and if multiple dice succeed, they choose which die resolves the action, with different consequences depending on the color

So what I’m trying to find are strong reference points: have you seen any RPGs that do something interesting with dice bags, drawing dice from a bag, colored dice with different meanings, or bag contents that evolve during play?

I’m especially interested in examples where:

• the bag is central to resolution
• the draw creates tension before the roll
• different dice colors mean different things
• the bag changes as the character or situation changes

If Fireflies! sounds like your kind of thing and you’d like to help shape it early, talk design, or get in on future playtests, you’re very welcome to join our community Discord:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

It’s a growing space full of players and TTRPG designers who regularly chat about games, share feedback and tips, and sometimes jump in to play together too.

Would love any references or comparisons.

Hi folks,

I’m working on a TTRPG called Fireflies!, and I’m looking for references specifically around dice bag building systems.

Fireflies! is a psychedelic caravan roleplaying game about colour-bound travellers consuming bizarre magical substances and venturing down night roads to help scattered settlements survive in a desolated world.

You build a caravan with your friends, become magic junkies, and try to save communities while slowly becoming harder for ordinary people to understand.

Because the game is about both literal journeys and psychedelic inner trips, a dice bag felt like the right core mechanic. During a single journey, characters consume glows and encounter unsettling events that add different dice to the bag, so the bag becomes a snapshot of their current state, risks, and pressures for that night.

Very roughly, when a character takes action:

• the number of dice they pull depends on their ability to overcome the challenge, including skills, tools, preparation, and other advantages
• the outcome depends in part on whether the dice they pulled match the glow of the action they’re attempting
• then they roll their d6s against a DC, and if multiple dice succeed, they choose which die resolves the action, with different consequences depending on the color

So what I’m trying to find are strong reference points: have you seen any RPGs that do something interesting with dice bags, drawing dice from a bag, colored dice with different meanings, or bag contents that evolve during play?

I’m especially interested in examples where:

• the bag is central to resolution
• the draw creates tension before the roll
• different dice colors mean different things
• the bag changes as the character or situation changes

If Fireflies! sounds like your kind of thing and you’d like to help shape it early, talk design, or get in on future playtests, you’re very welcome to join our community Discord:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

It’s a growing space full of players and TTRPG designers who regularly chat about games, share feedback and tips, and sometimes jump in to play together too.

Would love any references or comparisons.

Hi folks,

I’m working on a TTRPG called Fireflies!, and I’m looking for references specifically around dice bag building systems.

Fireflies! is a psychedelic caravan roleplaying game about colour-bound travellers consuming bizarre magical substances and venturing down night roads to help scattered settlements survive in a desolated world.

You build a caravan with your friends, become magic junkies, and try to save communities while slowly becoming harder for ordinary people to understand.

Because the game is about both literal journeys and psychedelic inner trips, a dice bag felt like the right core mechanic. During a single journey, characters consume glows and encounter unsettling events that add different dice to the bag, so the bag becomes a snapshot of their current state, risks, and pressures for that night.

Very roughly, when a character takes action:

• the number of dice they pull depends on their ability to overcome the challenge, including skills, tools, preparation, and other advantages
• the outcome depends in part on whether the dice they pulled match the glow of the action they’re attempting
• then they roll their d6s against a DC, and if multiple dice succeed, they choose which die resolves the action, with different consequences depending on the color

So what I’m trying to find are strong reference points: have you seen any RPGs that do something interesting with dice bags, drawing dice from a bag, colored dice with different meanings, or bag contents that evolve during play?

I’m especially interested in examples where:

• the bag is central to resolution
• the draw creates tension before the roll
• different dice colors mean different things
• the bag changes as the character or situation changes

If Fireflies! sounds like your kind of thing and you’d like to help shape it early, talk design, or get in on future playtests, you’re very welcome to join our community Discord:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

It’s a growing space full of players and TTRPG designers who regularly chat about games, share feedback and tips, and sometimes jump in to play together too.

Would love any references or comparisons.

Hi folks,

I'm Aram. I've been designing video games professionally for years, and lately I've been building more of a community around my TTRPG work too.

One thing I care about a lot is helping creators keep moving when a project gets stuck. I know from experience how easy it is to hit that wall where a game is exciting and full of potential, but suddenly hard to push forward on your own.

Because of that, I run a community event called Design Clinic, where I spend time with creators and try to help them move their game forward. Sometimes that means giving feedback on a mechanic, sometimes helping someone clarify their pitch, and sometimes just being a thoughtful extra brain in the room when a project feels tangled.

But let's kickstart the conversation right here right now <> What kind of support actually helps you most when you're working on your own RPG?

-> Is it feedback on mechanics?
-> Playtesters?
-> Help with structure or pitch?
-> Or just moral support and a good conversation with other people making things?

If you're wondering who I am and would like to see the kind of game work I do, my published game is here:
https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

And if you'd like to join the Discord, share what you're working on, or drop by Design Clinic sometime, we'd love to have you:
https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

Feedback always appreciated, and let's create together.

Hi folks,

I'm Aram. I've been designing video games professionally for years, and lately I've been building more of a community around my TTRPG work too.

One thing I care about a lot is helping creators keep moving when a project gets stuck. I know from experience how easy it is to hit that wall where a game is exciting and full of potential, but suddenly hard to push forward on your own.

Because of that, I run a community event called Design Clinic, where I spend time with creators and try to help them move their game forward. Sometimes that means giving feedback on a mechanic, sometimes helping someone clarify their pitch, and sometimes just being a thoughtful extra brain in the room when a project feels tangled.

But let's kickstart the conversation right here right now <> What kind of support actually helps you most when you're working on your own RPG?

-> Is it feedback on mechanics?
-> Playtesters?
-> Help with structure or pitch?
-> Or just moral support and a good conversation with other people making things?

If you're wondering who I am and would like to see the kind of game work I do, my published game is here:
https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

And if you'd like to join the Discord, share what you're working on, or drop by Design Clinic sometime, we'd love to have you:
https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

Feedback always appreciated, and let's create together.

Hi folks,

I’m Aram, a solo TTRPG creator and professional game designer with 8+ years in the video game industry.

Late in 2025, I founded my own indie studio, **Knot Knot Games**, and earlier this year I launched my first TTRPG, Pocket Party.

Pocket Party is a fast-paced, whimsical story game where you and your friends play as kids who stumble into pocket dimensions.

I’ve now run over 100 games with players here in Edinburgh, and the response has been really encouraging. I’m looking for more people to try the game, run it, and tell me what works, what doesn’t, and what they’d like to see next.

The free SRD is here:
https://knotknotgames.com/pp-srd/

I also run a small Discord community of around 30 people where we organise games, talk game design, share projects, and help each other push our TTRPGs forward. Some of it is Pocket Party-focused, but it’s also a space for other indie creators and players.

I regularly host community events where I lend my professional design experience to other creators, whether they’re polishing something, stuck halfway through, or just trying to get started.

If that sounds like your kind of place, we would love to have you there:
https://discord.gg/cZcHuNAxb8

No pressure to buy anything. I’m mostly looking for players, feedback, and more people who care about small tabletop games.

I’d love to know: what makes you actually want to try a new indie TTRPG?