Marcos Nunes-Ueno: User Research Engineer

If you were an Elemental Warrior in Kameo, which one would you be and why? So now you’re going to play hardball, eh?  The standard usability engineer response would be “(Pause) … that’s a good question – what Elemental Warrior do YOU think I’d be?”  Then I’d analyze your response, identify possible issues concerning misconceptions about the warriors and about me, and write a report about it. Actually, I don’t think I’d be an Elemental Warrior; they’re the ones that do stuff in the game.  If I had to pick, I’d say I was more like Ortho.  He doesn’t actually physically do much, but he’s always around watching Kameo, helping her through difficult spots and getting her further into the game.  That’s close to what a user research engineer does.

First, please tell us a little about yourself. What is your official job title, and how did you come to work on the Kameo project?
My name is Marcos Nunes-Ueno – I’m a usability engineer with the Games User Research Group in the Microsoft Game Studios. 

Our group is responsible for helping the design team get their vision of the game across to the players by collecting player reaction and feedback.  For example, if users are having difficulties using the controls or understanding the goal of a quest, we can provide that feedback so that the design team can make the appropriate improvements. 

Every one of the titles that MGS publishes has a user research engineer on the project; I was the one working on Kameo.

What is a day like in your shoes?
There really isn’t a typical day in user-research land™. 

Some days we spend much of our time in meetings with teams and discussing the design vision for the game.  Other days, we spend reading design docs and thinking about how a typical user would play the game as described in the doc and what types of unintended difficulties they might encounter. 

Much of our time is spent designing and running studies with players to understand how they play the game and how they react to it.  And after we run a study, we analyze the data, write reports, and work with the design team to find solutions to any issues.

When we tell people about our jobs all they hear is “I play games for a living”, but I’d have to say there is about 5% of game playing, and the rest of our time is spent in meetings, on email, working in Excel or Word, or sitting in a dark usability lab watching people play games.  It’s much less glamorous than it sounds.

But then again, if you are a gamer AND a research geek this really is a kick-butt job.

What was the biggest challenge for you with regards to Kameo?
The biggest challenge working on Kameo was trying to test the entire game.  We created extended weekend tests in which participants played Kameo for 8 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday.  By working closely with the Kameo designers, many issues that confused or frustrated players were identified and fixed. It was a lot of work and required a team effort from many people on the project, but in the end it was worth it.

Do you have any funny or entertaining stories you'd care to share about your job and/or the Kameo project?
No.  This is a multi-million dollar project with a potential audience of tens of millions of players.  We have a responsibility to the product and to the users to treat the game development process and user research with the reverence it is due.

…

Okay, not really.  Well, actually “yes, really”, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have fun and there isn’t the occasional light moment. 

Personally, I always find it entertaining (and educational) when we run studies with real players.  You can never predict how people are going to play the game or how they will react until you put it in front of them and you watch them play it for the very first time.  The reaction we got from some participants when they saw trolls get impaled alive on Chilla’s back for the first time was quite entertaining - of the “no you didn’t!” and “they just didn’t go there!” variety.

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