abstract

Games User Research (GUR) for Indie Studios

Authors:

Naeem Moosajee,

Pejman Mirza-BabaeiAuthors Info & Claims

CHI EA '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 3159 - 3165

https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2892408

Published: 07 May 2016 Publication History

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Abstract

Playtesting sessions are becoming more integrated in game development cycles. However, playtests are not always feasible or affordable for smaller independent game studios, as they require specialized equipment and expertise. Given the recent growth and prevalence of independent developers, there is a need to adapt playtesting processes for indie studios to assist in creating an optimal player experience. Therefore, our research focuses on challenges and opportunities of integrating games user research in the development cycles of independent studios. We worked with three studios conducting playtests on their upcoming titles. In line with the CHI2016 #chi4good spirit this paper contributes to the important topic of adopting user research methods for indie and small game studios. We believe that the games user research (GUR) field must advance towards demographics that will benefit from GUR but are under-represented in the community and this paper is one of the first that will contribute to this.

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Cited By

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Ranandeh VMirza-Babaei P(2023)Beyond Equilibrium: Utilizing AI Agents in Video Game Economy BalancingCompanion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3573382.3616092(155-160)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3573382.3616092
Fatehi BHarteveld CHolmgård C(2022)Guiding Game Design Decisions via Eye-Tracking: An Indie Game Case Study2022 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications10.1145/3517031.3529613(1-7)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517031.3529613
Veloso CPrada R(2021)Validating the plot of Interactive Narrative games2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9618897(01-08)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9618897
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Index Terms

Games User Research (GUR) for Indie Studios
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Personal computers and PC applications

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Published In

CHI EA '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2016

3954 pages

ISBN:9781450340823

DOI:10.1145/2851581

General Chairs:
Jofish Kaye
Yahoo
,
Allison Druin
University of Maryland / National Park Service
,
Program Chairs:
Cliff Lampe
University of Michigan
,
Dan Morris
Microsoft
,
Juan Pablo Hourcade
University of Iowa

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 May 2016

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Abstract

Funding Sources

NSERC

Conference

CHI'16

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

CHI'16: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 7 - 12, 2016

California, San Jose, USA

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CHI EA '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 1,000 of 5,000 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

View all

Ranandeh VMirza-Babaei P(2023)Beyond Equilibrium: Utilizing AI Agents in Video Game Economy BalancingCompanion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3573382.3616092(155-160)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3573382.3616092
Fatehi BHarteveld CHolmgård C(2022)Guiding Game Design Decisions via Eye-Tracking: An Indie Game Case Study2022 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications10.1145/3517031.3529613(1-7)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517031.3529613
Veloso CPrada R(2021)Validating the plot of Interactive Narrative games2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG)10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9618897(01-08)Online publication date: 17-Aug-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9618897
Haider AGerling KVanden Abeele VMirza-Babaei PMcArthur VVanden Abeele VBirk M(2020)The Player Experience Inventory BenchExtended Abstracts of the 2020 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play10.1145/3383668.3419898(248-252)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3383668.3419898
Mirza-Babaei PStahlke SWallner GNova ABernhaupt RMueller FVerweij DAndres JMcGrenere JCockburn AAvellino IGoguey ABjørn PZhao SSamson BKocielnik R(2020)A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video GamesProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376831(1-12)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3313831.3376831
Stahlke SMirza-Babaei P(2018)Usertesting Without the UserComputers in Entertainment10.1145/318356816:2(1-18)Online publication date: 10-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3183568
Mirza-Babaei PMoosajee NDrenikow B(2016)Playtesting for indie studiosProceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/2994310.2994364(366-374)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2994310.2994364

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Lightweight Games User Research for Indies and Non-Profit Organizations

Playtesting for indie studios

User Experience Design and Research in Games