Innovative testing for independent games

Kumotion

Kumotion is an independent publisher, creating games for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. They called upon us to help them improve the user experience of two of their games – Lumo Deliveries and Lumo’s Cat.

Budget was of a premium so in both instances we developed lo-fi player testing programmes which allowed them to get the most insight from game players for the least spend. Kumotion’s games appeal to a very niche audience so we helped them recruit the right people for the test – calling on students from nearby Warwick University.

We also took a slightly different approach to testing with this project; we looked to mimic the real-life scenario of buying an app, playing it alone, then later discussing with friends. We carried this out by running six short (30 min) individual user tests in the morning, where we allowed each person to play the game by themselves. We pretty much just let them play the game without interruption – as they would if they had downloaded the game from the app store. We then brought everyone back for a group discussion in the afternoon to have a casual chat about the games. This path generated bags of useful feedback.

Our recommendations had a serious impact and we were chuffed to hear that the research has shaped important gameplay aspects for both titles.