Keywords Studios’ Post

Well, Gamescom was a blast! Elliott Beattie and I had some really productive meetings across the days we were there, ate some good food, drank some lovely beer. Some of the things that seemed to be coming up across a few of the conversations we had: - De-risking development is something that's hot on everyone's minds right now, understandably. Deepening your audience understanding, making bets safer through careful research, and building long-term relationships with research teams all go a long way to help mitigate some of these risks. This all starts with identifying a strong research strategy - what are we making, who are we making it for, where are the potential failure points, where can we resource our research efforts to that? Answering these and conducting the right research at the right time can help ensure key decisions are being made in an informed, deliberate way. It's also a lot cheaper to course correct at the earlier stages than trying to do it later. Player Research can support here! - Taking research questions global. Through Keywords Studios we're able to conduct in-person research across the world, delivering insights on players in various regions - their habits, motivations, likes, dislikes, wants, needs, hopes, dreams (ok maybe not the last two). This cross-cultural research can be a game changer when releasing a title in an unfamiliar region. This was definitely something that a number of our existing (and hopefully future!) clients are keen to explore. - Accessibility! Since launching our Advancing Accessibility service just before Gamescom last year, it was heartening to hear the topic coming up organically this time around. There seems to be an increasingly mature conversation here too - folks we spoke to are keen to design for accessibility, and are implementing things much earlier in development (when it's cheaper to do so!) We're super excited to be able to continue supporting accessibility efforts in studios around the world - There's also been a lot of appetite, and opportunity, for pulling various Keywords services together to support clients in a more holistic (sorry) way. We're fortunate to be able to easily and seamlessly work with 70+ incredible studios doing all sorts of things - with experts in pretty much every domain you can think of. From conversations we've had, being able to bring various services under one banner, with key people being dedicated to finding solutions, is a hugely valuable thing The inimitable Abbas Hassan-hussein 🔜 XDS will be at XDS next week - get in touch to chat to him about how Player Research can help support with delivering you high quality player insights to support your development. #gamedev #UXResearch #accessibility #gamescom #xds #UserTesting #gamedevelopment #Playtesting #UserExperience #gamesuserresearch