Games User Research Services for Indies & AAs

When to Reach Out

A good rule of thumb is the same week your work on a milestone* starts. But if you’re somewhere else in the process, I still might be able to help, so please reach out either way!

* This assumes “milestones” are 1-4 months long, and that the build or part of the game you want to test is what is locking at the end of the milestone.

1. USABILITY REVIEWS
Great for small budgets or tight timelines

  • 🍕The Pizza Slice

    - Video of me playing your game while thinking out loud so you can understand what’s going through my head

    - Transcript marked to highlight usability issues, software bugs, and instances of good usability to help quickly locate spots of interest in the video

    - “Top 3” Text Doc Summary covers the 3 highest priority usability friction areas I encountered, with notes including supporting video clips and suggestions

    Ask for a Slice

  • 🍕➕The Half Pie

    Everything in the Pizza Slice, plus…

    - A Methodical Second Pass. I go back through your game, this time carefully scanning for usability frictions missed during my first playthrough. Half Pie is limited to identifying missed frictions in 3 areas out of a full set of 7 usability pillars & heuristics that I use for usability reviews.

    - “Top 3” Upgraded to “Top 5”. The Summary now covers the top 5 highest priority areas of usability friction. I also add in brief details on any lower priority Critical- or Serious-level frictions that didn’t make it into the top 5, if they exist.

    - A Fresh Visual Summary. Great for quick referencing or sharing outside the core team, the slide deck includes screenshots and a few lines about each friction spot in the Top 5.

    Ask for a Half Pie

  • 🍕✨ The Works

    Everything in the Half Pie, plus…

    - A Bigger and Better Second Pass. I use the full set of 7 usability pillars & heuristics to even more thoroughly scan for usability frictions I didn’t encounter during my first playthrough.

    - “Top 5” gets Upgraded to a “Top 10” Summary. Now the Summary goes in-depth on the top 10 highest priority areas of usability friction. I also add in brief details on all lower priority usability frictions, ranging from Critical down to Mild, if they exist.

    - An Expanded Visual Summary. The slide deck expands to cover each friction spot in the Top 10.

    - A 90-minute Debrief + Brainstorm. In the first hour, I walk through the findings with you, we discuss, and I answer any questions you have. The last 30 minutes are dedicated to a brainstorm I facilitate where you and your team vote on 3 issues you want to focus on solving and then brainstorm on next steps.

    Ask for The Works

Why focus on usability?

Usability reviews aren’t about polish — usability is foundational to a good experience! It’s about whether players can actually play and enjoy your game the way you intended. Unlike more subjective things like balance or narrative tone, usability issues are often grounded in clear player friction — things like confusion, missed info, or interaction breakdowns. That makes them easier to identify, agree on, and fix early, before small frustrations snowball into bigger player drop-off. Usability reviews can help spot them using principles and heuristics from usability, interaction design, and player psychology.

If core interactions are confusing, or the game’s feedback is unclear, players risk the chance of becoming confused, frustrated, or even bouncing. The good news is, these kinds of issues are easier to identify than opinion-based issues, and you can get helpful insights even from a solo usability review or a small playtest!

2. MINI PLAYTESTS - COMING SOON!
Great for playtesting with real players on a limited budget or timeline

Worried your build will be buggy, or not playable enough to test?

This is a totally understandable concern, but good news - buggy builds can be great for playtesting! Playtesting is all about learning, not impressing players. The only builds I’d definitely avoid playtesting are ones that crash constantly, or builds that prevent players from experiencing the part you most need them to for useful insights. I can design the test to warn playtesters about known bugs and guide them to focus on just the areas we care about them playing and giving feedback on.

Even a buggy build can reveal what’s confusing, what’s working, and what’s missing! I’d actually caution against polishing a build beyond what’s absolutely necessary for the playtest — it’s better to catch a design issue early in a buggy or rough build because you may end up needing to do rework to make changes to the game based on what you learned!