PlaytestCloud has become central to the game development process at many mobile game studios – including large, small, indie, and one-person teams. This is no accident, as we've designed our product to fit within the typical game development cycle. With PlaytestCloud you can test your game at any stage during development: It doesn’t matter if it's still a concept with little artwork or a storyboard, a game that's near release, or anywhere in-between.

PlaytestCloud was designed with you the game developer in mind. But don't take our word for it, instead take a look at what some prominent individuals from four different studios have to say about PlaytestCloud and how they implement it within their production cycles.

More playtesting tips: PlaytestCloud's Guide to Multiplayer Testing

John Boog-Scott, Owner PeopleFun

John is the Owner of PeopleFun, the studio behind Word Chums. He had this to say about PlaytestCloud:

"We view PlaytestCloud as a standard piece of the product development cycle. Our focus in the videos is on the new player experience. We like to see what things they easily understand, what they find confusing, etc. We also like to see how they experience the core mechanic of the game and how they feel about the game after their brief experience."

Word Chums is getting some great reviews from players. Check out this user review from May 12th, 2017 on the Google Play Store:

"Cute visuals and calming nature ambient noises while you play and learn. It also lights up when you create an actual word. I find it quite entertaining as well as motivating. I can't stop playing!"

You can grab the game from the Google Play Store or the App Store.

Kyle Smith, CEO TreasureHunt

Here’s what Kyle Smith, CEO of TreasureHunt had to say about developing their first game using PlaytestCloud:

"PlaytestCloud was a critical part of our development process on Boomie Blast. One of our biggest challenges was how innovative our core mechanic was. The videos we got back from PlaytestCloud helped us identify which direction to move in and what users were excited by.”

Download Boomie Blast here for iOS.

UPDATE: Read more about Kyle's experience with PlaytestCloud in his VentureBeat post.

Ian Bickley, User Experience Director Exient

Recently, we spoke with Ian Bickley, User Experience Director at Exient, about his experience playtesting games with PlaytestCloud.

Here are some of our favorite quotes from the interview:

  • Ian talking about the ability to pinpoint moments within playtest videos:

"The great thing about PlaytestCloud is that I can tell the team, ‘Go watch that video at that exact moment and you'll see the problem. You can pinpoint issues and show multiple examples.'"

  • How the team feels about the playtest videos:

"I know I could ask any member of the team and they would say the exact same thing. We wanna do more testing videos, we wanna know more. They are great, it's been really, really useful."

  • On finding crucial insights:

"Without that insight we'd probably have released the game not knowing there was a problem, would have gotten low review scores, wouldn't have made as much revenue, and it could have really impacted on the product's performance. So, there for me is proof that there is massive value in doing PlaytestCloud videos."

  • Wise words for those who are concerned about playtesting too early:

"Don't be afraid of testing something early. You'll learn a lot, and that's invaluable. The information that you get back for the price that you pay is great. It's really high-value content you get back."

  • How Exient marries analytics with qualitative feedback:

"We correlated our analytics with PlaytestCloud videos, so we could closely observe how players were behaving at specific moments. That's where data analytics and user testing really mirror-up nicely. Both work together to form a 360-degree view of the issue you’re trying to solve."

Check out the whole interview here. Grab the game itself on the App Store.

Fredrik Wahrman, CEO TicBits Ltd

Berlin-based game studio Wooga, best known for their titles Jelly Splash and Diamond Dash, launched the tower defense game Crazy Kings in May 2016.

The game was developed by the Finnish studio TicBits and was launched under Wooga’s publishing initiative. As part of Wooga's support, we conducted tests both of the first-player experience and the first week of gameplay through a 7-day long-term test.

What does working with 4-5 hour long gameplay videos feel like? Here's the opinion of TicBits' CEO on the matter:

"The long videos were great. It took some time to go through them all, but I definitely think it was worth it for us. They gave us important insight into how players play the game once they grow more accustomed to it and also showed us what parts of our UI needed more work.

Overall I'm extremely happy with the service. All the videos have been helpful to us in improving the tutorial and in finding and fixing a lot of UI issues."

Learn more about our long-term tests and diary studies here. Crazy Kings is available on iOS.

What's your story?

We love to hear from our customers and want to spread the word about PlaytestCloud, playtesting, and games user research in general.

If you have any playtesting stories of your own that you would like to share, please reach out to me directly at dillon.cleaver@playtestcloud.com.

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