This book is for those who are keen to learn about how to run usability playtesting on their games. No prior knowledge or experience is assumed, motivation to learn about usability and playtesting is enough.

Of course, this book is really about more than that. This is for those want to better understand player behaviour, perception, and cognition, in order to make the best game possible.

A dedicated playtesting role has existed in the games industry since the late 1990s, however they still remain rare in games studios. Such jobs are referred to by various names including User Researcher, UX Researcher, Player Experience Researcher, there is no agreed-upon title. In terms of which departments these researchers sit under, again it’s varied. Some studios have a dedicated User Research department, others might have user researchers inside their marketing department, whereas others might have an insights department that brings together findings from user research, marketing, and community managers. People in these roles come from various academic backgrounds with typical ones being psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, and the social sciences, however having one of these backgrounds is not compulsory, people have ended up in user research from many different routes.

Although the role of user researcher can exist in a games studio, the vast majority of games studios worldwide, by which I mean about 99% of them, do not have a professional user researcher on their team. There are many reasons for this such as higher salaries available outside of the games industry, difficulty in finding suitable staff, and other forms of acquiring player feedback are emerging all the time. In addition, user research is not required in order to bring a game to market.

The 99%

So this book then, is for the other 99% of the games industry, the teams who don’t have access to a professional games user researcher, but have the interest and motivation to do playtesting themselves. The book is not intending to turn you into a user researcher, but rather to make sure you have the confidence to run a usability playtest when the need arises. And who knows, it could indeed set you on the path to becoming a dedicated games user researcher.

I believe the following people will find this guide useful:

• Students of game design and development. Students are in an ideal environment to practice the craft of playtesting. They are in an environment dedicated to learning and feedback, and have a steady supply of potential playtesters (fellow students). Their university might even have a usability lab already set up on campus. This is a recipe for becoming good at playtesting very quickly.

• Current Games industry professionals. By which I mean anyone currently working in the games industry - designers, programmers, producers, artists, marketing, QA, community management, etc. Anyone on a team could take the lead on running usability playtests for their game.

• User researchers outside of the games industry who are thinking of transitioning to games user research. If you are one of these people you’ll see that usability playtesting on games is similar to usability testing of apps or websites, and that can be reassuring to know that your skills are transferrable. However, there will be a few differences that will be useful for you to be aware of.

• People interested in getting into games user research. Running usability playtests is a good way of getting into games user research. It is one of the easier methods to apply and is also one of the core research methods used in the industry. It also quite common for people to move from another game development discipline into user research.

• Studio management and senior leadership teams. Although these groups may not need to do any playtesting themselves, they should be aware of how to best use playtesting to help them achieve the studio’s goals. The organisational psychology frame in this book should be of particular interest to this group.

As the guide is most likely for people who are new to games user research, we’ll be starting from scratch and assume no prior knowledge.

Key takeaway

You don’t need to have an advanced research degree in order to run a usability playtest. However, you do need a ‘good enough’ understanding of the essentials, this guide will provide that.

Next: A Usability Primer > 4. Usability in Games