Levelling Up the Narrative Testing Practices of Indie Video Game Developers

Narrative testing is a specialised games user research (GUR) practice that requires resources and knowledge that is not easily accessible to indie developers. Therefore, indie developers are disadvantaged compared to their larger AAA counterparts. Thus, this work proposes the direct study of indie developers to level the playing field by democratising narrative testing best practices and empowering non-research team members to conduct GUR activities. The work aims to achieve this goal by defining best practices, identifying key challenges, co-designing and evaluating narrative testing prototype(s), and disseminating GUR knowledge. The successful completion of this work will profoundly impact how indie studios conduct narrative testing, leading to the creation of better games and, in turn, greater economic success for the UK gaming industry.