A few months back, you might remember a post here about my participation in helping run a Student Game Expo (SGX). Since then, the monthly expo has grown exponentially and pulls in a good crowd every month. Though not actively running the SGX anymore, this month I did contribute by developing a way to get feedback from SGX attendees. One of the most valuable tools at a dev's disposal is the player. Understanding who your target audience is and what they think of your game could dramatically guide the direction of development. Thus I saw the SGX as an opportunity to gather feedback directly from the player, that I could then turn around and disseminate back to the teams.
With a thorough background in user experience, flow state, and video game heuristics, I set out to develop a feedback form that would provide the developers with valuable information. To this end, I pulled upon previous research I had conducted and used The Play Experience Scale: Development and Validation of a Measure of Play by Pavlas, Jentsch, Salas, Fiore, and Sims as a starting foundation. I also used Game Usability Heuristics for Evaluating and Designer Better Games by Heather Desurvire and Charlotte Wiberg to determine a sustainable formula for measuring heuristics.
Next, I developed the feedback form online using Google Forms and set it up for the SGX. I was there facilitating the feedback station to help the SGX attendees provide their thoughts. I also had a section on the form that would allow players to provide their own feedback directly to the developers. After the event, I consolidated the raw data collected and started charting and graphing the results. My ultimate goal was not to just dump the raw data to the team, as they might not have the same experience and understanding of video game UX. The information should be easy to read and understand by the teams, to ensure they can get the most out of it. After I was done, all that was left was providing the data to the teams. Below is a sample of how I presented the feedback to a team.
User-generated feedback should always play a part in informing the developers what people want from their product. Even just making the team aware of things they might have overlooked can be extremely helpful for teams that inadvertently suffer from tunnel-vision after months of working on a project. Got questions about obtaining UX feedback for your game? Comment below and I'll be glad to help!
