You are not your players
Playtesting requires representative players, to generate data you can trust.
But it's hard to find real players or convince them to take part in your playtests.
Too often teams fall upon asking friends, family, or other game developers for feedback. And end up using untrustworthy data that doesn't really represent their players.
This leads to poor quality decision-making, and ultimately failed games.
De-risk your game development by finding real, genuine players and convincing them to join you for playtesting throughout development.
Define your players
Understand how the wrong playtesters can tank your game development.
Recognise good and bad definitions, and work out exactly who you should be targeting with your game.
Then find their real, authentic communities and craft the perfect offer to attract them to any type of playtest.
Create your playtest panel
Create your own pool of playtesters, who are ready and willing to test your game at a moment's notice.
Ensure your panel is GDPR and data compliant, and ready to go whenever needed.
Be ready to playtest
Use your playtest panel to run regular playtests throughout development and unblock iteration.
Use your new playtesters for usability testing, surveys, interviews or any research method.
Make informed game design decisions, and de-risk your game development process.
The only course made for game developers running their own playtests
This course is designed to be useful for game developers who want to test their own game.
Praise for previous training courses
"Steve ran games usability training for our entire game development team at MindForce Game Lab. We all found the training extremely valuable, packed with practical guidance and it provided us with the tools and templates needed to run our own usability tests.
The mixture of theory and interactive activities raised our confidence in running usability testing throughout game development, and there were plenty of opportunities to think about how to apply this to our own game. We’re looking forward to running more usability tests to ensure our game is usable and fun for players!"
“It really was inspiring for me … it will help us a lot (especially with the templates).”
Praise for The Playtest Kit
"... makes playtesting feel not only less overwhelming, but genuinely more effective. It's a must-read for new developers and veterans alike..."
Morgan Baker, Accessibility Lead & Game Designer
"...Perfect for people new to the game scene and want to learn industry-standard practice, or for veterans who want to streamline their process..."
Scott Brebner - Senior Game Designer at Glowmade
Praise for How To Be A Games User Researcher
"Essential reading for anyone aspiring to work in games user research and those who are early in their careers…
This is a book I sincerely wish I had at my disposal when I was a grad student."
Jess Tompkins, UX Researcher at EA
"A must-read for UX/UR professionals & teams looking to include UR as part of their development"
Nida Ahmad, UX Designer and Researcher at Netspeak Games
Get started running playtests with your genuine target players
Led by games user research expert, Steve Bromley
Steve Bromley is an experienced games user researcher and educator, who has worked in games for over a decade.
He led user research studies for top games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, SingStar, the LittleBigPlanet series and the PlayStation VR lineup, and continues to work with big and small game studios.
He is the author of the book How To Be A Games User Researcher, and started the IGDA's Games User Research mentoring scheme, which has linked over 150 students with more than fifty industry professionals from top games companies such as Sony, EA, Valve, Ubisoft and Microsoft.
Steve's Playtest Kit helps game studios across the world integrate UX research into their game development process.
He regularly writes about games user research at gamesuserresearch.com
