Game Design Feedback Collection Methods in Pre-Release Game Development

Abstract: The development of games is secretive in nature due to its creative constraints, and a project can run over the course of a few years. With the advent of agile methodologies, software projects have involved customers in the development process to iterate on received feedback. By exploring the different methods game developers employ to involve customers or tackle issues that interfere with the value of the final product, this study offers an insight into what practitioners actually do to collect the feedback they deem useful. We find that there are two main categories of feedback methods, those that are internal to the company and those that involve potential customers. Within these categories, different mechanisms are employed with differing goals and targets at different stages of the development process. While there are clear patterns on what constitutes useful feedback to practitioners, the implementation of those feedback collection mechanisms differs across the industry.