Creating a video game requires more than just development time and coding—to make sure the experience is enjoyable, you have to test it. In this episode, User Researcher Steve Bromley joins us to discuss the nuances of conducting user research in the video game industry.

He describes integrating user feedback with the developer's creative vision, recruitment for games research, and the evolution of the gaming industry since he first started.

Steve talks about…

How to integrate user feedback with the developer’s creative vision.
What playtesting is (and isn't).
The surprising challenges of recruiting video game testers.

Highlights

[00:01:16] So what exactly is “games user research?”
[00:03:15] What do you mean by “playtesting?”
[00:16:51] How do you navigate something as broad as “making a game fun?”
[00:27:48] Steve talks about what it’s like to be on the bleeding edge of games research.
[00:38:17] How the field has changed since Steve first started out.

About our guest

Steve Bromley specializes in establishing new user research teams and in user research for video games. He wrote Building User Research Teams and How to Be A Game User Researcher. He works with mobile studios, indie teams, AAA teams and VR studios to help them run playtests and integrate user research into the production process. Prior to this, he was a lead user researcher for the PlayStation VR headset.

Althusser & Foucault, Ideology & Power