How many playtesters do I need? 👾
Plus how to move into games from another UX industry, & new games user research jobs
Hello friends.
No hiring manager interview this month (sorry, I’ve been having some really productive conversations with hiring managers, but ended up with a backlog that I haven’t worked through!). I’ll be putting together a free e-book of all of the tips from hiring managers later this year.
This month:
📊 Work out how many playtesters you need
🔜 Move from another industry into the games user research
💼 Games user research jobs
(and more…)
Let’s get started with our playtesting and games user research posts this month...
How many playtesters do I need?
When running a playtest or user research study, pretty early on you need to decide ‘how many playtesters’ do I need.
Plucking a number out of the air feels wrong, and magic numbers float around game design communities of ‘the right number of playtesters’.
Personally, for each playest, I recommend…
Six players when you’re trying to discover problems with your game
Twelve players when trying to understand and define players
One hundred players for quantitative measuring questions
In this article I explain the reason behind these numbers, and help you make a confident choice about how many playtesters you need for your playtest.
Moving from academia to games user research
You spend eight hours of each day at work. And after many years of working as a user researcher, that can start to fill like a drain – what is the next career step?
Some choose management and advance into mentoring or growing the next generation of user researchers.
Others look to move industry – into a domain they feel passionate about. And everyone love games!
This move into the games industry can be more challenging than expected, and questions emerge such as “how do I retain my seniority”, or “why am I not getting interviews from my application”.
I’ve completely re-written last year’s article on this, and cover how your existing user research experience can help put you ahead of other candidates. I also reveal the gaps in your experience that you will have to address to be taken seriously.
Games User Research Jobs
Some highlights from this month:
User Research Internship with Insomniac (Thanks Anirudh Ganesh)
User Researcher at People Can Fly
Senior User Researcher at CD Projekt
See more of latest games user research jobs on the GUR Jobs page.
Free Career Tips Ebook
In case you missed it earlier this year - I spoke to top researchers from companies like EA, Blizzard, PlayStation, Activision, Ubisoft, Riot and more about how to get a job in games user research.
Next Month
That’s it for another month. Find these helpful? Tell a friend - I’d appreciate it.
Coming next month:
🤝 What interview questions should you prepare for?
🕹️ The top playtesting platforms of 2022
💬 More insider interviews with hiring managers
💼 New games industry jobs
🧑🚀 More!
Have a great month.
Well done for making it to the end. Here’s this months bonus duck 🦆!