I help people start a career as a user researcher in the games industry, and unlock better playtests for game developers.
It's here: The 2023 Playtest Survey Results
Hello friends!
You may remember we spent the first half of 2023 asking developers about their playtesting habits - what do they playtest, when do they playtest, how often, and what problems they face. We had hundreds of responses, which far exceeded my expectations.
I'm really glad to share that Jackson Herd and myself have finished combing through the results, and are ready to share what we learned!
What did we learn about playtesting?
Some highlights (including fantastic illustrations from Cait Goodale)...
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We asked game developers how important playtesting was to their game development process - and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Reassuring! (if we ignore the sample bias...)
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We explored when respondents had run playtests in the last year - and observed that it was primarily during Alpha. In the full results, you can also explore the objectives teams had, the methods that were used, and how frequently playtests were run.
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We explored what is holding teams back from playtesting, and heard the most common issues included getting builds together, the time it took to prepare the study, and finding participants. In the full results, we explore the tools that teams use to mitigate these issues, and what could be improved about their playtesting process.
And much more, in the full results
Find our analysis of these results, and the full 30+ questions exploring when and how teams playtest at the gamesuserresearch.com site.
| View the full results from the Playtest Survey |
Any surprises? Drop me an email with your thoughts - I'd love to discuss the conclusions!
Have a great end of your month!
Steve
Steve Bromley - gamesuserresearch.com
I help people start a career as a user researcher in the games industry, and unlock better playtests for game developers.
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