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Evaluating User Experience in Games: Concepts and Methods - Lirmm

Evaluating User Experience in Games: Concepts and Methods - Lirmm

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6 R. Bernhaupt<br />

• Production: The production phase can range from few weeks development<br />

to years of program<strong>in</strong>g. This phase can be structured additionally, follow<strong>in</strong>g<br />

approaches like an <strong>in</strong>crement to completion approach, a cascade approach, or<br />

an “iterative – until you drop” approach (Irish 2005).<br />

• Localization: An important phase for games that will be delivered to different<br />

markets (countries) is the localization phase. In this phase, game play can<br />

be adjusted to suit the tastes of the market, to allow language translation <strong>and</strong><br />

modifications due to local regulatory authorities.<br />

• Alpha-phase: This is the phase when a game is playable from start to f<strong>in</strong>ish,<br />

allow<strong>in</strong>g different evaluation methods to be applied to better underst<strong>and</strong> aspects<br />

like fun, playability, <strong>and</strong> user experience.<br />

• Beta-phase: Ma<strong>in</strong> goal dur<strong>in</strong>g this phase is normally to fix bugs. In terms of user<br />

experience <strong>in</strong> this phase, lots of f<strong>in</strong>e-tun<strong>in</strong>g is necessary to improve the overall<br />

user experience. The beta-phase <strong>in</strong>cludes steps like certification or submission<br />

(the hardware manufacturer of the proprietary platform will test the game).<br />

• Gold: In this phase, the game is sent to be manufactured.<br />

• Postproduction: In this phase, subsequent versions of the game may be released<br />

(<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g patches <strong>and</strong> updated) <strong>and</strong> allow to improve the user experience of the<br />

game.<br />

Goal of evaluat<strong>in</strong>g user experience dur<strong>in</strong>g the concept phase is to underst<strong>and</strong> if<br />

the game will be fun to play <strong>and</strong> what k<strong>in</strong>d of experience the player will have dur<strong>in</strong>g<br />

game play. Dur<strong>in</strong>g the concept phase <strong>and</strong> other early development phases like the<br />

preproduction <strong>and</strong> prototype phase, methods <strong>and</strong> approaches used are<br />

• Focus groups<br />

• Interviews<br />

• Informal play test<strong>in</strong>g<br />

• Questionnaires<br />

In this book, E. Brown presents methods like (paper) prototyp<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> tech demos<br />

(see Chapter 5), Isbister shows that early (<strong>in</strong>ternal) play test<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> analysis of exist<strong>in</strong>g<br />

play patterns can help to underst<strong>and</strong> user experiences <strong>in</strong> general <strong>and</strong> especially<br />

for social play (see Chapter 2). <strong>Methods</strong> like semantic differentials (see Chapter 6)<br />

<strong>and</strong> the PIFF questionnaire (Chapter 3) allow to ga<strong>in</strong> a general underst<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g of the<br />

game user experience. <strong>Methods</strong> like the GAP approach (Chapter 8) <strong>in</strong>vestigate user<br />

experience for a special user group – the <strong>in</strong>experienced gamer.<br />

Dur<strong>in</strong>g the implementation <strong>and</strong> test<strong>in</strong>g phases, the follow<strong>in</strong>g methods have been<br />

successfully used:<br />

• Play test<strong>in</strong>g (<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g biometrical measurements)<br />

• (Semi-structured) <strong>in</strong>terviews<br />

• Observation<br />

• Video cod<strong>in</strong>g<br />

• Quantitative comparisons of gamers’ behaviors

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