Levelling Up the Narrative Testing Practices of Indie Video Game Developers

叙述测试是一种专门的游戏用户研究（GUR）实践，它需要独立开发者不易获得的资源和知识。因此，与大型AAA开发者相比，独立开发者处于不利地位。因此，这项工作建议直接研究独立开发者，通过民主化叙事测试最佳实践和授权非研究团队成员进行GUR活动来平衡竞争环境。这项工作旨在通过定义最佳实践、识别关键挑战、共同设计和评估叙事测试原型以及传播GUR知识来实现这一目标。这项工作的成功完成将深刻影响独立工作室进行叙事测试的方式，从而创造出更好的游戏，进而为英国游戏产业带来更大的经济成功。

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.