A Postmortem on Playtesting: Exploring the Impact of Playtesting on the Critical Reception of Video Games

Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Samantha Stahlke, Günter Wallner, Atiya Nova

Onderzoeksoutput: Hoofdstuk in Boek/Rapport/CongresprocedureConferentiebijdrageAcademicpeer review

3 Citaten (Scopus)

Samenvatting

Game studios aim to develop titles that deliver a fun and engaging experience for players. Playtesting promises to help identify opportunities to improve player experience and assist developers in achieving their design intent. However, a lack of research on the added value of playtesting means that many studios are still uncertain about its commercial viability and impact on product success. This gap in understanding is further complicated by the vague definition of "success" afforded by sales figures and review scores. In this paper, we assess reported feature quality of three commercial titles by analyzing playtesting reports and game reviews. By comparing themes and design issues expressed in game reviews to the results of pre-release playtesting for each game, we aim to highlight the value of playtesting and propose a set of guidelines for selecting playtest methods based on the needs of a given game evaluation. Through the real-world case studies presented, this paper contributes to the growing domain of games user research and highlights the value of playtesting in game development.

Originele taal-2Engels
TitelCHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
UitgeverijAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
ISBN van elektronische versie9781450367080
DOI's
StatusGepubliceerd - 21 apr. 2020
Evenement2020 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020 - Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Honolulu, Verenigde Staten van Amerika
Duur: 25 apr. 202030 apr. 2020
https://chi2020.acm.org

Congres

Congres2020 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020
Verkorte titelCHI 2020
Land/RegioVerenigde Staten van Amerika
StadHonolulu
Periode25/04/2030/04/20
Internet adres

Financiering

We would like to thank the game studios who participated in this study and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grants Program -GPIN-2014-05763) for supporting this research.

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