al_dtv
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 Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:49 pm Post subject: [Event, Brighton,UK] PLAY 29th of August, Brighton - Jurys I |
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[Event, Brighton,UK] PLAY 29th of August, Brighton - Jurys Inn Hotel
Use8- The User Experience Society
presents:
PLAY: Exploring the UX Dimensions of Video Games Design
The Games industry has created a whole series of challenges for games
developers and designers. Games narratives, structures and controls
have got to a level of complexity that offers new ground for inventing
and developing different methods of interacting with games.
To be successfull, in such a crowded and competitive industry, games
developers must consider the context of experience.
Unlike traditional software, where more traditional performance
metrics can be applied, measuring experential dimensions such as 'fun'
and 'playability' becomes a daunting task. Games are a tremendously
varied set of applications, defying a one-size-fits-all approach. Even
a broad and relevant concept such as flow falls short of capturing all
classes of game experience.
'Play' will go beyond simple usability issues exploring different
dimensions of User Experience that make games enjojable.
The event is free and will take place on the 29th of August at the
Jurys Inn in Brighton UK.
Speaking at the event are:
Blast! Entertainment - Aaron Ludlow, Producer
BlackRock Studio, Disney Interactive – Jason Avent, Games Director
Serco Games Research – Ben Weedon, Head of SGR – Mike Lewis,
Consultant
Panel of Experts:
Univesity of Sussex – Graham McAllister, Senior Lectuer
BlastTheory – Matt Adams, Artist
Relentless Software – Jonathan Napier, Project Coordinator
University of Portmouth – Nipan J. Maniar, principle Lecturer
For more info and to book your place go to:
http://www.use8.net/index.php?pmctsys=us8&pmshow=volunteeru
Alfonso Comitini
Project Co-ordinator
Use8
acomitini@use8. net
www.use8.net |
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al_dtv
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:45 am Post subject: Re: PLAY 29th of August, Brighton - Jurys Inn Hotel |
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On Aug 11, 6:49 pm, al_dtv <alfonsocomit...@googlemail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | [Event, Brighton,UK] PLAY 29th of August, Brighton - Jurys Inn Hotel
Use8- The User Experience Society
presents:
PLAY: Exploring the UX Dimensions of Video Games Design
The Games industry has created a whole series of challenges for games
developers and designers. Games narratives, structures and controls
have got to a level of complexity that offers new ground for inventing
and developing different methods of interacting with games.
To be successfull, in such a crowded and competitive industry, games
developers must consider the context of experience.
Unlike traditional software, where more traditional performance
metrics can be applied, measuring experential dimensions such as 'fun'
and 'playability' becomes a daunting task. Games are a tremendously
varied set of applications, defying a one-size-fits-all approach. Even
a broad and relevant concept such as flow falls short of capturing all
classes of game experience.
'Play' will go beyond simple usability issues exploring different
dimensions of User Experience that make games enjojable.
The event is free and will take place on the 29th of August at the
Jurys Inn in Brighton UK.
Speaking at the event are:
Blast! Entertainment - Aaron Ludlow, Producer
BlackRock Studio, Disney Interactive – Jason Avent, Games Director
Serco Games Research – Ben Weedon, Head of SGR – Mike Lewis,
Consultant
Panel of Experts:
Univesity of Sussex – Graham McAllister, Senior Lectuer
BlastTheory – Matt Adams, Artist
Relentless Software – Jonathan Napier, Project Coordinator
University of Portmouth – Nipan J. Maniar, principle Lecturer
For more info and to book your place go to:http://www.use8.net/index.php?pmctsys=us8&pmshow=volunteeru
Alfonso Comitini
Project Co-ordinator
Use8
acomitini@use8. netwww.use8.net
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Hello everyone,
Thank you for taking part to Play, I wanted to share with you one of
the talks on usability and Video games.
Also, use8 just opened a Social Network for usability professionals,
developers, designers, UX professionals, entreprenuers and everyone
working in the creative sector. I think it's worth joining and
contributing to the discussions and groups.
the link is: www.use8.net/network
Introduction
On the 29th of August, during Play: Exploring the UX Dimensions of
Video Games Design, Jason Avent from Black Rock studio (part of Disney
Interactive) talked about how applying same simple usability
techniques on PURE, their new racing game, enhanced the players
experience in playing the video game.
Since its acquisition by Disney Interactive, Black Rock Studio has
been focusing on higher quality production for games more than mere
ROI; all these efforts striving for higher standards got them two 9
out of 10 reviews on PS3 Magazine and Xbox magazine.
Methodology
Jason talked of two different type of testing:
• Blind Testing
• Group Testing
The blind testers are users that have never played the game and they
get tested using three methods:
• Free Flow, The player plays as it was a normal set and there are no
constrains on what they can do or go.
• Narrow-Specific, the player is asked to play specific bits of the
game such as one specific level
• Broad Specific, The player plays the game with no restriction but
the observer exactly know the points he wants to focus on.
The group testing is made of 8 players playing at the same time in the
same room. The group helps observers getting the ‘feedback mood’ of
the players; you can always tell if people are having fun, get
frustrated, smile and laugh.
In terms of data logging, at Black Rock Studio they don’t use video
because it’s too labor intensive and they gave up note taking because
it not always gives accurate data. The main data logging system comes
from the game itself logging some of the aspects of the playing time.
1. Start-restart time
2. Lap time
3. Best results
These there type of information are genre specific, what it means is
that Black Rock build racing games that means that the start restart
time, best lap time and time laps in general are essential to create
an engaging game. The player has to be able to restart the game in the
less amount of time possible and it needs to complete one lap in the
fastest time possible. Also these sets of data allow to better
understand the learning curve of the player (never too difficult,
never too easy).
The group testing is not just a way to get useful data on performance
and learning curve. It also gives the opportunity to make users talk
to each other and come up with improvements for the game. It ends to
be an involuntary non-structured focus group where participants are
able to feedback on good and bad parts of the game.
The Benefits for usability testing.
1. Removing the blockers, if the users keep pressing the wrong button,
you change the button.
2. It’s a non subjective way to make decisions regarding design and
development changes.
3. Bring new and creative ideas. For example, to get racing in Pure,
the player has to qualify; this qualification is a tutorial that
teaches the player tricks and tools to be used during the racing. If
you don’t qualify you can’t race. The problem was that not everyone
had the same problems performing all the tricks, 10% of the players
might have problem with trick A and onother 10% problems with trick B;
The solution ws to come up with a contestual intelligent help system
that could help each player solve their specific problems. In other
words, instead of going over and over again through the same tutorial
“qualification”, the player was just getting help for some of the
trick and not for others.
4. Usability studies helped Black Rock to perfectly balance the
learning curve to make the video game more interesting.
Future developments:
Black Rock is pretty much pleased with the results the obtained from
the usability study, so in the future they will:
1. Start the process right at the beginning of the development
2. More research on the players’ Psychology
3. Games User Interfaces
4. More equipment and set up |
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