London Meetup Sunday 15th September

The September London Meetup will be on Sunday 15th September from 1pm to 8pm at the Jugged Hare pub, Victoria.


September signals the end of Summer. Its time to get back to staying indoors working feverishly on the latest prototype as the rain lashes down outside. For designers seeking a publisher, there is just over a month to perfect your game before meetings at Essen Spiel in October.

If you've designed a game, bring it along and give it a play or just enjoy playing other people's prototypes in a friendly and constructive atmosphere. Everyone is welcome.

If you would like to bring along a new design, contact Rob Harris (Organiser) and your game will be added to the provisional list. 

We have pre-registration to make the sessions run more smoothly. Designers are encouraged to pre-register their games to be playtested before the meetup by leaving a message on the meetup page or contacting Rob Harris (Organiser).

You are still welcome to bring along other designs on the day, but time slots will first of all be allocated to pre-registered games.

More details: www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/115482832/

We also have a guild at Boardgamegeek.com: www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1398

Some of the games to be playtested (TBC):

Zambezi - a light, fun family game, (15mins x players), 2-5-8 players (Peter Burley)

Crowdfunder - light economic game about kickstarter, 60ish mins, 2-4 players (Behrooz Shahriari)

Not Fluxx - random chaotic game, 10-15 mins, 2-6 players (Behrooz Shahriari)

Barbarians! Run! - Roman-bashing wargame, 90 mins, 2+ players (Dave Turner)

King's Favour - social card game, 45mins, 4-10 players (Paul Pressley)

Civili-'zee'-ation - cooperative game, 90 mins, 4 players (Ben Neumann)

Fishy Business - light euro game about sea fishing, 60 mins, 2-4players (Mo Holkar)

Eternal Gateway - fantasy/ medieval game, 60-120 mins, 2-4 players (Andy Yiangou)

Trinity - Roman-themed card & dice game, 60-75 minutes, 2 -5 players (Brett Gilbert & Matt Dunstan)

Artisans - "cube machine" game, 60-75 minutes, 2-4 players (Brett Gilbert & Matt Dunstan)

Angkor Thom - city building game, 45-60 minutes, 2-5 players (Brett Gilbert)

Divinare Dice - super-quick dice game inspired by Divinare, 20-30 minutes, 2-4 players (Brett Gilbert)

Corportocracy - cyberpunk world domination game, 90 mins, ? players, (Jonathan Casterton)

Five Wickets Down - deckbuilding cricket game, 60 mins, 2-4 players (Chris Taylor-Davies)

Adapt or Die: Cro-Magnons coming - pre-historic survival game, 90 mins, 3-4 players (Dave Mortimer)

The Joust - bluffing card game, 30 mins, 2 players (Dave Mortimer)

Newsy (WT) - card game about the news, 30 mins, 2-3 players (Alunga)

London Meetup Sunday 18th August

The August London Meetup will be on Sunday 18th August from 1pm to 8pm at the Jugged Hare pub, Victoria.


Following hot on the heels of the Nine Worlds Convention public playtesting will be the August meetup. All the holiday hours spent idling by the pool can now be used for game design. Don't leave home without your ideas notebook.

If you've designed a game, bring it along and give it a play or just enjoy playing other people's prototypes in a friendly and constructive atmosphere. Everyone is welcome.

If you would like to bring along a new design, contact Rob Harris (Organiser) and your game will be added to the provisional list. 

We have pre-registration to make the sessions run more smoothly. Designers are encouraged to pre-register their games to be playtested before the meetup by leaving a message on the meetup page or contacting Rob Harris (Organiser).

You are still welcome to bring along other designs on the day, but time slots will first of all be allocated to pre-registered games.

More details: www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/115482732/

We also have a guild at Boardgamegeek.com: www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1398

Some of the games to be playtested (TBC):

Chocolate Trader - strategy game about chocolate factories, 30-40 mins, 3-4 players (Lawrence Davies)

Send in the Clowns - 2 x card game rules for kids/ adults, 2 x 30 mins, 2-4-6 players (Andrew Bond)

Deckchairs - tile-laying race game, 60 mins, 2-4 players (Andrew Bond)

Hold the Front Page - newspaper industry game, 90-120 mins, 2--4-6 players (Andrew Bond)

Eternal Gateway - fantasy/ medieval game, 45-60 mins, 4 players (Andy Yiangou)

Robofactory - economic game about robot-building, 90 mins, 2-6 players (Carlos Moreno Serrano)

Guilds of Florence - worker programming game, 90 mins, 2-6 players (Carlos Moreno Serrano)

Caterwaul, battling tribes of cats, 30 mins, 2 players (Mo Holkar)

Mystery Prototype - 90 mins, Details to follow (Ben Neumann)

Cricket Prototype - new version of deck-building sports game, 60 mins, 2-4 players (Chris Taylor-Davies)

Cursed Temple - sneaky queue manipulation game, 30 mins, 3-4 players (Andrew Rowse)

Dexikon - deck-building spelling game, 50 mins, 3-4 players (Andrew Rowse)

Playtest UK @ Nine Worlds Convention 2013

Calling all budding games designers and playtesters!

Playtest UK will be running a playtesting event 

at the Nine Worlds Convention 2013 August 10th-11th.

This is a new convention, which was funded through Kickstarter and has a very varied programme from gaming to Harry Potter academia. The playtesting will take place in the Connaught Room at the Radisson Blu Edwardia Hotel, Heathrow from 10am until 6pm each day.

Details here: https://nineworlds.co.uk/

The aim of the event is to bring designers and playtesters together to play games, encourage feedback and to help create better games.

If you have game prototype that you would like to put in front of players, please bring it along. There will be feedback forms provided.

Do you like to play games? Do you know what makes a good game fun? Your opinions could help to develop the prototypes and perhaps lead to a playtesting credit in a published game.

Feel free to contact me for more details at contact 'at' playtest.co.uk

July London Meetup 2013 Debrief

A dedicated group of playtesters came to enjoy a lovely summer's afternoon playing games and getting feedback and comments on their designs at the July London meetup for Playtest UK. Prototypes included microgames, epic space miniatures battles, satirical political games, word games and many more. We welcomed 5 new attendees this month: Eran, Matt J, Matt R, Michel and Paul.

Details of the games played can be found here on a BGG geeklist: 
www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/160034/playtest-uk-london-meetup-sunday-21st-july-2013

Here are some photos of the event:

New Newcastle Playtest meetup

Building on the success of the Playtest groups in London and Cambridge, now there is a Newcastle Playtest monthly meetup that local designers and playtesters in the North-East can call their own. 

Everyone is welcome to join and bring along their own prototypes or just settle down in a friendly atmosphere and give constructive comments. 

The Newcastle Playtest meetups will be organised by Playtest member, Daniel Howard.

The venue will be the The Bridge Hotel, Castle Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1RQ.

Here is a link to the venue website: www.bridgehotelnewcastle.co.uk
There are more photos of the venue here: 
www.meetup.com/Playtest/photos/16039162/

If you would like to join the Newcastle Playtest meetup group follow this link: www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/129252252

More announcements to come soon...

New Game from Days of Wonder: 'Relic Runners'

Congratulations to Playtest UK member, Matt Dunstan on his first published design, 'Relic Runners', which is due to be released by Days of wonder later this year.

The game was playtested at the Playtest UK London meetup and went on to be shortlisted for the Europa Ludi 2012.

Links: 

Days of Wonder: www.daysofwonder.com/relic-runners/en/
Game Entry on BoardGameGeek:
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144270/relic-runners

London Meetup Sunday 21st July

The July London Meetup will be on Sunday 21st July from 1pm to 8pm at the Jugged Hare pub, Victoria.


Playtest is getting bigger for the Summer! This will be the last London meetup before the Nine Worlds public playtesting event at the start of August.

If you've designed a game, bring it along and give it a play or just enjoy playing other people's prototypes in a friendly and constructive atmosphere. Everyone is welcome.

If you would like to bring along a new design, contact Rob Harris (Organiser) and your game will be added to the provisional list. 

We have pre-registration to make the sessions run more smoothly. Designers are encouraged to pre-register their games to be playtested before the meetup by leaving a message on the meetup page or contacting Rob Harris (Organiser).

You are still welcome to bring along other designs on the day, but time slots will first of all be allocated to pre-registered games.

More details: www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/115482652/

We also have a guild at Boardgamegeek.com: www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1398

Some of the games to be playtested (TBC):

Hegemony - medium weight wargame, 60+ mins, 4 players (Robert Bracey)

Dexikon - wordplay card game, 60 mins, 4 players (Andrew Rowse)

Temple of Doom - card based escape game 45 mins, 4 players (Andrew Rowse)

Eternal Gateway - fantasy/medieval game, 120-180 mins, 2-6 players (Andy Yiangou)

Codex of the Gods - abstract game, 20 mins, 2-3 players (David Mortimer)

Adapt or Die Cro-Magnons - survival game, 90-120 mins, 3-4-5 players (David Mortimer)

Viroids - Details to be confirmed (Matt Rodda)

Dark Continent - sandbox exploration game, details to be confirmed (Chris Leigh)

Starfighter - space combat game, 70-90 mins, 3-6 players (Lawrence Davies)

SQUASH! - tactical sports game, 10-15 mins, 2 players (Lawrence Davies)

Blackjack Attack/Trivia - card game prototype, more details to come, 3,6,8 players (Helen Walton)

Caterwaul - card game about rival cats, 20-45 mins, 2 players (Mo Holkar)

Privatise? - satirical political game, 60 mins, 3-5 players (Chris Swann)