"Is this fun?": Practical tactics to integrate player insight throughout development
summary
Argues that testing must be specific and early: define target players, write hypotheses for each risky decision, and sync tests to pre-production vertical slices so fixes are cheap. Recommends live observation plus short interviews, analytics and unmoderated tools like Playtest Cloud or Antidote, and avoiding noisy sources like Steam Playtest/Discord alone. Claims you find most major usability failures with five to six players and should iterate small tests rather than one big late milestone study.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (15)
- 0:00Games user research intro
- 2:17Game dev risks and playtesting
- 5:50Playtesting red flags
- 8:35De-risking development
- 10:22What and when to playtest
- 17:47Playtesting challenges
- 18:28Finding right playtesters
- 25:45Playtest timing to avoid rework
- 32:24Choosing playtest methods
- 39:04Analyzing playtest data
- 43:57Q&A: Playtesters on a budget
- 46:04Q&A: Key playtest stages
- 47:29Q&A: Handling playtest data
- 49:55Q&A: When to playtest
- 51:02Closing remarks
related talks
47mBetter Playtesting For Indie Developers.
58mThe Psychology of Play: The Power of Understanding Your Players
40mGames User Research Throughout the Development Process and Beyond!
08mTowards Democratisation of Games User Research: Exploring Playtesting Challenges of Indie Video G...
33mBuilding Your Game's UX Strategy Using a Scientific Approach
48mPanel: A Love Story: Essential Strategies to Attract (& Keep) an Audience.
44mLive Ops Strategies That are a Must for Every Game Developer
24mA UX toolkit – The player’s perspective