Chorus of the Night
I was the sole User Researcher on this project. I approached the developer via Reddit and offered my services. I provided an expert review and a moderated playtest, including recommendations for UX solutions. My insights directly led to the implementation of over 20 improvements to the overall game. I will outline my process on this page.
01
Approach
I began by approaching the developer and telling him about my background and intentions with the project, we then set up a video call to discuss where he was in development and what kind of insights he was looking for.
02
Expert Review
After speaking to the developer and getting an idea of which areas he was concentrating on, I began playing the game while focusing on these areas. While playing I took notes on things that didn't feel great to me, as well as potential pain points for users like myself.
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I compiled my notes and set up another video call with the developer where we discussed the notes I had, as well as potential solutions.
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After this meeting, the developer sent me a new build of the game with many of the changes we discussed implemented. I played more with the changes to see how they felt and sent the developer my thoughts.
03
Moderated Playtest
Once the expert review was done, I felt the developer would benefit from a moderated playtest. I had a participant that frequently played games like this one, including many indie games, so I felt he would be a perfect playtester for this game. I spoke with the developer to make sure he was okay with having someone else look at the game, then I set up a time for the playtest.
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I got on a call with the participant and had him start up the game and approach it as he would a game he just bought and is playing for the first time. I asked him to speak out loud about anything that came to mind about the game, positive or negative. He spent about an hour and a half playing the game and making observations, many of which were very different from my own. I took notes while observing to see if he noticed certain mechanics that felt like they weren't obvious. After we were done I distilled my notes and set up another time to meet with the developer.
04
Final Meeting
In our final meeting, I presented my findings from the moderated playtest. As before, we discussed potential pain points and solutions, including discussions about certain design decisions and whether they were having the intended effect.
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A few days after the meeting he sent a potential launch build of the game. I sent a copy to the participant and we both tried the changes, then I sent our final thoughts to the developer.
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Since then the game has been released and the developer has been adding more content through patches.
Final Credit
