So far we have discussed recording our observations based around the hypotheses to be assessed, but what about the moments in-between?

Although we said that the advantage of having hypotheses is it focusses the team’s attention on what is to be assessed, it can be useful to document other points along the player’s journey. This recording of moments of interest might be useful to note key behaviours such as:

• Acknowledgement of the player interacting with an item/character.

• Acknowledgement of quests/missions starting.

• Recording specific items the player keeps returning to.

• Recording what the player did not do, but should have.

Constructing such a player behaviour log will allow you to look back and see how past behaviour might have influenced something which occurs later on.

The framework I often use to help make sense of what I am observing is as follows:

Q. What is the player doing right now (behaviour)?

Q. What caused the player to do this (prompt, feedback etc)?

Q. Why is the player doing this (purpose)?

Q. Is this what I’d expect? Looking for unexpected behaviour.

I only revert to this framework if the player is not yet at a point in the game where a hypothesis needs to be evaluated.

Key Takeaway

Constructing a log of the player’s behaviour can useful for recording moments of interest in the playtest. When combined with the outcomes of the hypothesis testing they can tell an interesting narrative on the player experience in this session

Next: Step 4. Interviewing Players > 43. Why We Interview