Steve Bromley
@stevebromley
🎮 games user researcher, author of books about user research | led playtests for some games you’ve heard of, many you haven’t. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
If you’re at Develop this week, look out for my article in MCV/Develop about playtesting for story appeal & comprehension - The magazine is free for attendees.
Like much of the UK games industry, I'll be at Develop this week. Tuesday & Wednesday is pretty packed, but let me know if you're around on the Thursday and up for a chat about playtesting, games user research, or seagulls.
Checking spelling on Google - this automated summary hurt my brain...
Finished Expedition 33, a while after everyone else. Not normally my genre, but I was hooked by the mystery of the prologue, and couldn't put it down.
Enjoying Parseword this week, from @josh.powerlanguage.co.uk It feels like I’m learning a skill (how to do cryptic crosswords), creating an incentive to stick with it each day.
Well put - That’s the core concept that I find helps explain what the purpose of playtesting is. Here’s the pic I use to explain this concept in my book/talks:
Last year I ran a lot of playtests on “difficult” games - it was a big year for soulslikes. One challenge came up again and again: How do you handle difficulty in a genre that’s famous for being hard?
On to the last episode of Dispatch. Enjoyed this very much - looking forward to another playthrough with different choices. The comics have been fun too!
Played ‘and Roger’ this weekend. Can’t say too much about it, but it will stick with me for a long time.
Puzzle gaming today - played through Time Flies, and Ooo, with Blue Prince next. I always think puzzle games are interesting from a playtesting perspective - specifically how to balance the intended difficulty bs frustration.
Worryingly, life membership of the Tate is only 25 years. What do they know that I don't?
I recently enjoyed the book LAN Party, with its many pictures bringing back memories of late, nerdy, nights.
Some early thinking of what levers we can pull on, to help encourage game development stakeholders to prioritise (and act on) research studies. New article on this coming up shortly, which will be shared on the mailing list at gamesuserresearch.com.
Picked up this new hardware “synthetic user”. Will be using it for research studies where teams accept AI participants - saves on SaaS subscription fees.
If you’re at Develop, pick up a copy of MCV/Develop magazine, to see this handsome chap in print (and in person!)
Enjoyed Thronglets - short, narrative based, well paced - perfect for mobile!
So many edge cases, but here’s an attempt at a decision tree for picking a GUR method: (An older attempt is on my website, focused on just the opinions vs behaviour dimensions). What big ideas are missing here?