Researchers

Naeem Moosajee

Master's Student in Games User Research, Digital Wizard

Projects

Affective Evaluation of Games & Interactive Media

Games User Research

Physiological Computing

Interactive and Multi-Modal Experience Research Syndicate (IMMERSe)

Developing and Analysing Adaptive, Enjoyable, and Engaging Human-Computer Interfaces

Publications

Year 2016

Games User Research (GUR) for Indie Studios

@inproceedings{Moosajee2016,
Abstract = {Playtesting sessions are becoming more integrated in game development cycles. However, playtests are not always feasible or a
ordable 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.},
Address = {San Jose, CA},
Author = {N. Moosajee and P. Mirza-Babaei},
Booktitle = {Proceedings of chi 2016 extended abstracts},
Doi = {10.1145/2851581.2892408},
File = {::},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gur_indies.jpg},
Keywords = {Games User Research,Playtest,Indie Development,Persona,Rapid Prototyping,Telemetry},
Title = {Games User Research (GUR) for Indie Studios},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/games-user-research-for-indie-studios},
Year = {2016},

Playtesting sessions are becoming more integrated in game development cycles. However, playtests are not always feasible or a ordable 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.

Playtesting for indie studios

@inproceedings{10.1145/2994310.2994364,
author = {Mirza-Babaei, Pejman and Moosajee, Naeem and Drenikow, Brandon},
title = {Playtesting for Indie Studios},
year = {2016},
isbn = {9781450343671},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2994310.2994364},
doi = {10.1145/2994310.2994364},
abstract = {Creating video games is a lengthy and demanding process. Financial success for games studios often depends on making games that deliver a fun and engaging experience for a diverse audience of players. Therefore, understanding how players interact and behave during gameplay is of vital importance. Playtesting aims to assist developers to achieve their design intent and help to identify and resolve potential problem areas during development. However, playtests are not always feasible or affordable for smaller, independent game developers (indie studios) because they require specialized equipment and expertise. In addition to this, there is a lack of research on the value of playtesting for indie studios, which means most indie developers are not convinced of the value of user research and playtesting. This paper reports on our collaboration with six commercial indie developers conducting eleven rounds of playtesting session. Through these collaborations, our paper contributes to this growing domain by highlighting the value of playtesting for indie developers and discussing the user research process and approaches based on indie developers' needs and budget.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek Conference},
pages = {366–374},
numpages = {9},
keywords = {game development, indie developers, case studies, playtesting, user experience, games user research},
location = {Tampere, Finland},
series = {AcademicMindtrek '16}
}

Creating video games is a lengthy and demanding process. Financial success for games studios often depends on making games that deliver a fun and engaging experience for a diverse audience of players. Therefore, understanding how players interact and behave during gameplay is of vital importance. Playtesting aims to assist developers to achieve their design intent and help to identify and resolve potential problem areas during development. However, playtests are not always feasible or affordable for smaller, independent game developers (indie studios) because they require specialized equipment and expertise. In addition to this, there is a lack of research on the value of playtesting for indie studios, which means most indie developers are not convinced of the value of user research and playtesting. This paper reports on our collaboration with six commercial indie developers conducting eleven rounds of playtesting session. Through these collaborations, our paper contributes to this growing domain by highlighting the value of playtesting for indie developers and discussing the user research process and approaches based on indie developers' needs and budget.