(press release)
The "playability" market in Australia looks set to take off, with UsabilityOne hiring US playability guru, Keith Steury to head up its Sydney office.
UsabilityOne, Australia?s fastest-growing specialist usability firm looks set to revolutionise the gaming industry in Australia, with the appointment of US playability expert, Keith Steury.
Playability refers to the ease with which users can negotiate their way through video games and interactive media; making the technology better for the user and driving sales for the publisher.
?Playability is essentially about the user experience,? explains Mr Steury. ?Is the user having the experience you want them to have? And are they happy with it??
?The gaming industry is incredibly competitive and very risky; so gaming publishers benefit by using external gamers and playability guys to offer a fresh perspective on the games. Naturally it?s up to the designer whether or not they heed the advice.?
In the past, Mr Steury has worked on over a dozen Microsoft games, including the phenomenally successful Halo series. According to Jamie Griesemer, lead designer of Halo 2, the use playability experts and user-testing played an enormous role in the Halo?s popularity.
?Halo?s success lies in its approachability,? he said. ?Many games throw novice players into high-pressure situations with no guidance at all and then punish them with long load times and loss of progress when they inevitably fail. Halo, on the other hand, hooked them, introduced them to the controls and the game mechanics and taught them how to have fun with the game.?
According to Shefik Bey, Director of UsabilityOne, Mr Steury?s appointment will give UsabilityOne a leading advantage in the world-wide market.
?Keith is a huge coup ? not only for UsabilityOne but for the Australian market as a whole ? especially as the games market grows and interactive media becomes more and more sophisticated,? he said. ?He brings a rare skills-set in game playability to Australia that is respected throughout the world.?
Before coming to the Games User Research Group, Mr Steury contracted as a usability engineer at Microsoft Research and more recently he coordinated a full usability review of Telstra's Mobile Next G services.
Mr Steury holds a M.S. in cognitive psychology from the University of Washington.
About UsabilityOne
UsabilityOne specialises in usability and user-centered research for all interactive products including websites, software, video games and all other types of user interfaces. Currently experiencing growth at over 400 per cent per year, UsabilityOne was founded in 2001 and has become one of the most respected usability consultancies in Australia. With offices in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, UsabilityOne works with a long list of clients to help them maximise their performance of their interactive products.
About the Australian Gaming Industry
? Australians spend $2.3 million per day on interactive games ? approximately the same as they spend on movies.
? Australia?s games production companies produce $100 million worth of games a year ? with that figure increasing every year.
? There are over 40 game development companies in Australia that produce over 200 titles.
? The Australian market has been developing games for over 20 years.
? Australia has an international reputation for producing creative talent and advanced technology.
(Figures taken from Game Developers Association of Australia: www.gdaa.com.au)
I note that the term "game design" wasn't mentioned in this press release...
How is rebranding the elements of good game design and production (specifically gameplay progression and playtesting, which were described but not named) as "playability" going to "revolutionise" game development in Australia? Or maybe I'm missing something here? Don't get me wrong, I think cognitive psych. has a lot to offer game design but like many game developers I have a natural suspicion of marketingese.
I imagine that he can offer a lot to do with how people are going to first look at a game and what sort of things will make people say "narr not for me" after playing it for 30 seconds at there local EB. I would think his skills would be strongly based around first impressions and that sort of stuff.
Great, more marketing morons to tell developers how to make games with half-baked academic waffle... the industry here is definitely on the move.
"revolutionise the gaming industry in Australia"
Holy shit, this means we've been doing it all wrong so far!!
i used to be a game developer but moved into web development a few years back. We now regularly conduct usability testing in all of our big web dev projects. Having done a bit of usability i can see how playability would have helped enormously in our game development.
I would like to see the progress he actually contributes to a project.
Although I don't work in the Industry, I think it would be interesting to see how he incorporates his ideas into a range of canon fodder.
It states that he worked for Telstra and and the Halo projects, but does that mean he is applicable to RTS games as well? His methods will have to be the defining point.
And Anonymous Dude, please state just a few games that you have worked on so we can see that the game play itself has not been in need of this guy or someone like him.
Anonymous Developer has had 20/20 forsight into previous developements, but you seem to think that how your work is exactly how it should have been. I don't agree with the "revolutionise the gaming industry in Australia" comment, but it does seem like a good idea, based on the overall methods that he can supply to wide range of projects ofcourse.
WTF?!!!!
Quality Assurance is "useability" testing - so is getting responses from focus-groups play testing the game and demos. I think all developers with a clue already engage in this and this stuff is kind of old hat to them.
Maybe the clueless studios need a hand, but I doubt the rest need this guy's BS, quite frankly.
Playability also falls under the area of "game design." If you are having a problem with the development of a title, then perhaps you should look very carefully at this area and your team's attitude to it.
You don't need some "useability" guru-wannabe twat to tell you how to fix it!