Learn Games User Research & Playtesting
Build practical research skills, learn to run effective playtests and explore a career in games user research.
Get my free ebook of career tips from researchers at top game studios such as EA, Blizzard, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Activision and more. And a new bonus book – the secrets of hiring managers.
Plus receive a monthly email with free games user research lessons and curated Games UX and UR jobs.
Sign up now to get the free e-books (no spam, just a nice email from me each month!)
Helping people become games user researchers at…
Start your career making games
Games user researchers run professional quality playtests to ensure games are understandable and enjoyable. This is a key part of making games that people love.
However it can be hard to start a career in games user research. You have questions such as
- What research methods do I need to know?
- Where can I find junior roles or internships?
- How can I convince people I can do the job?
- Why am I not hearing back from applications?
- How can I transfer my skills from another career in to games user research?
- How do I ace the interview?
It requires endless patience to keep applying and not hearing back. Sometimes it feels like it’s never going to happen.
Proven success in unlocking games careers
Learn what hiring managers look for, build relevant research experience and explain your skills clearly in applications and interviews.
I’ve led hundreds of people to their first role at top game companies. I’ve uncovered the secrets of hiring managers, and the steps you need to take to stand out from the crowd.
I know what research methods you need to master, and how to best show your experience to ensure you’re ready to work in the games industry.
Here’s how I can help:
Learn the foundations
The book: How To Be A Games User Researcher
Understand what games user researchers do, how research fits into development, and how to plan, run and analyse a playtest.
You’ll also find practical advice on building experience, preparing applications and taking your first steps into a games user research career.
A good place to start if: you’re new to the field or moving into games from another research role.
Develop your skills with real projects
The games user research course
Build practical research skills through structured learning, hands-on activities and real player data.
Learn how to plan studies, run research and communicate your findings, with expert mentorship and a supportive community to help you put the lessons into practice.
A good place to start if: you want guided practice and support as you develop your research skills.
Put research into practice
The Playtest Kit
Give your next playtest a clear plan. Get reusable templates, guides and processes to help you find suitable players, choose your methods, run sessions and make sense of the results.
Built for developers and teams who want to bring effective playtesting into their work, including those without a dedicated user researcher.
A good place to start if: you already have a game to test and want practical tools you can use with your team.
Start here: Free guides for new researchers
17 Games UX Research Job Interview Questions To Prepare For
You’ve got the interview for the games studio of your dreams. Learn what you will be asked, and how to answer games user research interview questions.
How to get games user research experience (before you have a job)
No experience holding you back? Learn how to get games experience before you get your first job in games UX research.
Move from academia into games user research
Not hearing back from job applications? Here’s what to cover when moving from academia to the games industry
helping me land my first internship a a major gaming company!
It has always been a dream to work in gaming, I just didn’t know how.
As a grad student, I had tons of academic research experience, but no clue how to actually apply it to gaming. Steve’s book/website was exactly what I needed to do just that, providing practical insights into how gaming research works, assisting me in preparing for job interviews, and ultimately, helping me land my first internship a a major gaming company!
I’d recommend this book for students (or anyone) trying to dive into gaming research.
get my first role in games user research.
Transitioning from an academic career into an industry role can be a tedious process, particularly when it comes to effectively translating your research experience into skills that are highly valued in an industry setting.
I learned about games user research shortly after completing my PhD program and was immediately intrigued, but did not know how to approach the job search because I did not have prior experience working in games.
‘How To Be A Games User Researcher’ was an incredible resource to become familiar with the game development process, how games user research teams are often structured, common research methods and even prepping for potential questions when interviewing for a role. With these insights, I could start drawing connections with the skills I had developed throughout graduate school and also identified opportunities for growth.
In addition to his book, Steve Bromley offers fantastic content through his newsletter such as interviews with other researchers about their journey to games, conversations with hiring managers and step-by-step advice on ways to acquire experience in games research before having a job in the industry. Collectively, his resources helped me start building a foundation and get my first role in games user research.
Highly recommend his work to anyone interested in learning more about the industry!
helped me in my journey as a UXR intern in gaming
The Games User Research newsletter helped me in my journey as a UXR intern in gaming with its rich content about industry advice, job listings, and links to resources.
This really makes me feel part of the lovely GUR community. Thank you Steve!
everything I needed to secure my dream games user research job at PlayStation
I always wanted to work in games user research, but was worried I didn’t have the relevant industry experience.
I spent over two years working in user research in mainly the public and third sector and knew that in order to get up to speed with how things work in the video game industry, I had to work incredibly hard.
When it came to dedicating my time outside of work to learning more about games user research, Steve Bromley’s resources were absolutely instrumental.
I used his book ‘How to Be a Games User Researcher’ to learn about how to run studies in the games industry; his newsletters gave me free career advice to help prepare for potential interviews; and his website offers courses on important skills like running playtests and survey design.
Steve is also super approachable, and is always happy to answer questions on Discord during your time on his courses, offering a few 1:1 slots to talk through things online if you need more advice.
His work and advice helped me prepare for everything I needed to secure my dream games user research job at PlayStation. I highly recommend his work!
a huge confidence boost going into the interviews
Steve’s resources were invaluable while I was preparing for my user researcher interviews at PlayStation.
His website, articles, and newsletter break down complex GUR concepts in a way that’s approachable and engaging. They helped me understand not just the terminology, but how GUR actually operates in practice, and gave me a huge confidence boost going into the interviews. I’m incredibly grateful for his work — it truly felt like having an experienced GUR in your corner, cheering you on.
land my first position as a games user researcher!
Steve’s book ‘How to be a Games User Researcher’ was an extremely valuable resource when I was navigating my way into games user research from academia, as it teaches the core principles and contains a lot of practical advice.
I used what I learnt from this to design and carry out my own usability test, which helped me to land my first position as a games user researcher!
I’m very grateful to Steve and highly recommend his resources to anyone wanting to begin a career in games user research.’
helping me wrap my head around how I might be able to market myself.
The newsletter provides so many helpful tips and tricks for any newbie, especially those coming from a career in academia, who wants to break into the gaming user experience research industry.
I have been able to read what UX looks like in the gaming industry and translate it into academic terms, ultimately helping me wrap my head around how I might be able to market myself.
This really makes me feel part of the lovely GUR community.
The Games User Research newsletter aids me in my journey as a UR Designer for Ubisoft and PhD candidate in GUR with its diverse and rich content about success stories, industry advice, job listings, links to additional resources and more.
This really makes me feel part of the lovely GUR community.
Whether you are just starting, looking to excel your UR career or wanting to be in the loop about the current research trends in the games industry, then this newsletter is for you.
Helped me on my path to securing that critical first role
Having studied Psychology and UX Design at university, what I was missing, was some real industry insight from a veteran of the games industry.
Steve’s newsletter was exactly what I needed – packed full of not only useful information but actions that I could take to tick the right boxes to help myself towards securing a role.
The newsletter undoubtedly helped me on my path to securing that critical first role and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone considering games user research and especially those who have their heart set on it and just need practical advice to take steps forward
Meet Steve Bromley, Expert Games User Researcher
I am an experienced user researcher, specialising in games user research and building new user research teams.
I work with publishers, platforms and studios of all sizes from indies to AAA to run playtests, and integrate user research into the game development process. I’ve spent over 25,000 hours with players!
Prior to this I was a senior user researcher for PlayStation and worked on many of their top European titles, including Horizon Zero Dawn, SingStar, the LittleBigPlanet series and the PlayStation VR lineup.
I wrote the best-selling 5-star rated book Building User Research Teams.
I started the IGDA’s Games User Research mentoring scheme, which has linked hundreds of students with industry professionals from top games companies such as Sony, EA, Valve, Ubisoft and Microsoft. This inspired my bestselling book How To Be A Games User Researcher which shares the expertise needed to work in the games industry, and has over 50 5-star reviews on Amazon.
Continue your games user research journey
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