When I ask players to playtest my game remotely, the quality of the recordings often vary quite a bit. For example, it’s often hard to hear what the player is saying because the audio hasn’t been balanced properly and sometimes players might forget to unmute themselves, making the recording much less useful than it could be.

I need to write a note about how to record playtests, addressing the common things that people run into.

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To record a playtest and send it to me, you will need the following programs: OBS and Handbrake.

1. Before recording your playtest, make a short test recording with OBS to check your audio levels. Play some music while you record and talk out loud a few times before stopping the recording. You should be able to hear yourself talk and you should also be able to hear the music.
2. After making the recording, use Handbrake to compress the video to a smaller file size. If you don’t know what preset to use, I recommend using the Official > General > Very Fast 1080p30 preset.