USER RESEARCHER / PLAYTEST MANAGER

Amber Bucharest is looking for a User Researcher/Playtest Manager to join our team. Are you in? JOB PURPOSE: We are looking for an experienced UX researcher/ playtest manager to join our team. You will be responsible for helping define and drive the future of our products. You will reveal what our player finds usable and engaging (or not) for our games by conducting mostly qualitative research and working with cross-functional teams. These responsibilities also include inspiring change, delivering oral and written presentations, evaluating qualitative and quantitative data, and helping the design team better understand what would make a player’s experience more intuitive, accessible, seamless, and most importantly engaging (a.k.a. fun). JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: Player Research

• Participates in relevant community discussions (netnography, hangs out with target audience)
• Defines or assists in defining or refining the target audience groups for the game / project (based on demographics / psychographics identified through testing)
• Defines or assists in defining desired player outcomes for the game / features they are testing
• Prepares and facilitates interviews, and focus group sessions for one or more game areas
• Recruits participants for user research (surveys, interviews, playtests…)
• Sets up or assists in setting up and expanding a playtester community dedicated to the game they are working on
• Identifies, creates, maintains, or adapts new mechanisms to recruit players for user research
• Prepares player surveys for one or more features
• Prepares and facilitates playtests, and concept tests with the target audience
• Analyzes data from user research, creates or assists in the creation of, and presents reports and supporting artefacts (end of playtest highlights/summary, exec summaries, player personas, empathy maps, player journeys, player reaction videos…)
• Assists in user data collection efforts, organizes data into usable info (if another researcher ran a study)
• Defines or assists in defining specific game metrics based on stud findings (when working with the pitch team) Assists in the creation of the pitch deck

• Assists with running market research or competition analysis for the game they are working on
• Assists in defining specific game metrics for the features under their responsibility

• Establishes a continuous player research pipeline with the team they are assigned to (every sprint / month / milestone…)
• Works alongside designers / art directors / producers to identify testable game areas and requirements for testing
• Works alongside designers / art directors / producers to identify solutions for the research findings, transform them into task for the dev team and set priorities

• Trains Game Designers and UX Designers to identify and articulate hypotheses for the game / features they are working on and expect to be tested (on an ongoing basis)
• Trains dev team on setting up and maintaining continuous research within the Agile pipeline

• You have a background in sociology, psychology, or anthropology
• You’ve worked in the gaming industry in the past or you are an avid gamer
• You’ve worked as a researcher for at least 3 years
• You can articulate what makes a game fun and extrapolate adaptations for the game you are working on
• You’re a fast learner and can quickly develop a strong understanding of the games you’re testing
• You’re proactive, you regularly talk with the teams you’re working with to identify what needs to be tested
• You’ve got experience working with a wide variety of player focused research methods:
• Surveys, interviews, focus tests, playtesting with paper prototypes, running concept tests, playtesting specific features with partial game builds, and running multi session or longitudinal studies (diary studies)
• You’ve got experience running research project bot on site and remotely
• You’ve got experience running both moderated and unmoderated play tests or usability tests
• You’ve got experience with structuring and analysing data coming in from surveys or other mostly quantitative research methods (Excel pivot tables, SQL, IBM SPSS or similar)
• You have experience in summarizing and presenting data from user research and collaborating with teams to define action items
• You have experience working in an Agile environment

• You’re familiar with the IDEO Design Kit and have adapted / can adapt methods for gaming industry purposes
• You’re familiar with Design Sprints (GV / AJ&S) / Design Sprint Workshops and LDJs and have adapted / can adapt methods for gaming industry purposes
• You’re familiar with Octalysis, GameRefinery, or similar player modivation models and have used or adapted them it in a gaming project
• You have integrated a continuous research pipeline in a previous project, ideally in the gaming industry (e.g. Epic Games / Celia Hodent UX pipeline)
• You have integrated player research (QLT Data) during a game’s LiveOps period, in support of analytics (BI, QTT data)
• You’re familiar with split testing (multi-variant testing) and have run or have participated in running a split test
• You’re familiar with Norman Nielsen Group heuristics, or similar, and can adapt / have adapted them for use in the gaming industry
• You’ve worked with TestCloud (iOS) and App Center (Android) in the past
• You’ve worked with remote play testing services like Usertesting.com / Playtest Cloud / Antidote.gg / Gametester.gg / similar
• You actively and constantly seek knowledge on competition products in the market
• You have experience with testing multiplayer games

• The opportunity to work on a diversity of games, focusing mostly on mobile gaming and expanding into PC and Consoles.
• The opportunity to work with and learn from at least 12 designers with over 11 years of experience in the gaming industry, as part of a 60+ person design guild, made up of game designers, level designers, and UX designers. Classes ranging from design, to art, modelling, and personal development.
• A professional and friendly bunch of people to work with. You’ll be part of R&D, and even through there are over 250 people in this group, we maintain a flat structure. Feel free to approach anyone if you have a question, concern or just wanna say hi.
• Access to training and learning programs through Amber Academy and other smaller scale learning opportunities (bi-weekly Design Pill, bi-weekly Design Guild meetup, bi-weekly UX meetup, 1:1 mentorship).
• An attractive salary package with private medical services.