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My absolute #1 tip is: forced deadlines.
When I lived in Australia, I had a weekly playtest night. Anywhere from 3-5 friends would come and play my prototypes, and it meant that every single Wednesday, I had to have something new to show them.
As a result, I’d stay up late on Tuesday nights so that we had something to play the next day. It wasn’t great for my sleep, but it meant that I was updating my prototypes once a week, no matter what.
Nowadays I have a regular weekly playtest online, a real-life playtest once a month, and I try to sprinkle other playtests in whenever I can. Having that deadline means that I will have an update ready to test!
When they playtests are online, I tend to make changes directly after the playtest, if able. That means I have a new version ready to go at all times…and often results in me setting up additional playtests because I don’t like having them sit there, untested, for too long.
