Playtest Reincarnation: Solution to Acquire and Visualize Gameplay and Observation Spatiotemporal Data

The experience provided by a digital game to its players is not always the best. Game design or development issues can result in broken products, with low quality and low usability. By applying adequate games user research (GUR) methods, development teams can assure the best experience possible. Telemetry is a quantitative method optimized for the collection of player behavior data, which can be combined with qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, observation), during playtest sessions, to obtain a better understanding of the player attitudes. However, telemetry can be expensive to implement and integrate, in terms of human resources and time, and the data collected by the moderator is not integrated in the telemetry data. We propose a GUR solution to support playtesting, aimed primarily at small and indie studios. This solution integrates the visualization of spatiotemporal events, representing player behavior data acquired through a customizable telemetry system and notes created by a researcher in real time, during the playtest. Through the development of a prototype and its integration in a 2D platformer game we demonstrate the proposed solution, using the Unity game engine. The prototype was validated based on a qualitative study conducted with users with relevant experience in the digital games industry. The results were positive and supported the benefits of the Playtest Reincarnation solution to facilitate and potentiate the performance of user research for small teams, in terms of simplicity of usage and integration, as well as promoting valuable findings regarding player behavior.