To design games that are fun and effectively deliver a positive user experience, it is essential to study people playing the game at each stage of the development process with a variety of research methods (play testing, focus groups, analytics, heuristic evaluation, physiological recording, etc.). This field of research, called Games User Research has become an integral part of the game development process in the past five years, with the majority of game development companies relying on internal research teams or third-party services to study how people interact with their games (http://gamesuserresearchsig.org/gur-sig/).

This session will walk through how to integrate the research process into the design and development of a game, which will be illustrated by examples from a variety of types of games.

ATTENDEE TAKEAWAY
Attendees of this session will understand the importance of research when designing a game, along with how to get started.