Release a game that you know players love …on time & on budget
Work with industry leader Steve Bromley to build your playtest roadmap and overcome the uncertainty of game development with behavioural player data.
Supporting studios & publishers throughout development
Overcome THE uncertainty of game development
Game development is chaotic. Priorities shift, deadlines slip, and teams are pulled in different directions, trying to balance creativity with business decision making.
With so many voices in the room, how do you know who to listen to? How do you stay aligned on the game’s vision, and produce the best possible experience for players?
Data aligned with your decision making
Imagine having a reliable source of truth that will help you to:
- Hit milestones on time and budget
- Accurately define and prioritise scope
- Maintain good morale, and avoid crunch and burnout
- Keep internal leadership and investors happy
Genuine behavioural player data that works with your creative vision will help cut through the noise, and make decision making clear.
Build your Games User Research process
Together we will build your systematic process to integrate player insight into making your game.
Games user research strategy with industry leader Steve Bromley
This isn’t market research, surface level playtesting or shallow AI ‘insights’.
I work closely with select mid-sized and AAA studios and publishers to deliver deep, player-focused insight across every stage of development – from early concept validation & pre-production to live post-launch refinement.
Whether you’re fine tuning a core loop, exploring your narrative arc, or looking for the why behind unexpected player behaviour, I implement a process of expert-led behavioural playtesting, to build player-focused teams.
Most studios looking for this support start working with me in pre-production or production, to align with making your biggest and most risky decisions. This is a collaborative process, not a one-size-fits- all process, and I partner with teams who value clarity, curiosity and real player impact.
If that sounds like you, let’s talk.
Why work with Steve Bromley & Games User Research?
✅ 25,000+ hours of playtest experience
Steve’s worked on top AAA, mid-tier and indie games. Steve has led research throughout every stage of game development and deploys qualitative and quantitative expertise to create clarity.
✅ 100+ games supported
Working with some of the most interesting and successful titles in the games industry.
✅ 14+ years
Steve’s 14+ years of experience with game developers means your conclusions will be relevant and actionable – giving a clear direction on ‘what to do now’.
✅ Unbiased, external view
Steve’s independence means he can help you find the right tools and methods to fit your budget and context.
✅ Focused on action
Extensive experience working with producers, designers and developers ensures that research is relevant and actionable.
✅ The home of games user research
Steve is author of 5 star rated, best-selling user research books and the world’s most popular games user research site.
HELPING MID-SIZED AND AAA STUDIOS ACHIEVE CONFIDENT LAUNCHES
Confident in the direction we needed to take
We asked Steve to consult on the state and structure of our User Research team at Paradox Interactive. He was warm and wise in providing insights into what ways would best help accommodate our developers. He pointed us in the right direction to focus on improving our craft. Steve was extremely timely and available for us whenever we needed a consultation. We felt more confident in the direction we needed to take to improve the user research work at Paradox Interactive.
I encourage anyone, no matter their position, to seek for Steve’s guidance in bring the player perspective to game development.
unpicked long-standing snags in our UX pipeline
Steve was very helpful with helping us unpick some long-standing snags in our UX pipeline, and did an expert job helping us plan and moderate in-person sessions. Super cheerful, super generous, and super informative!
taking our user research to the next level
Steve Bromley has been instrumental in taking our user research to the next level.
As we approached the launch of our first big title, we had a lot of questions about what our long-term play experience was like. Steve helped us define a playtest method that could answer those questions, including finding suitable participants and figuring out the right questions to measure engagement.
He went above and beyond to assist us and has been incredibly important to our user research growth
smooth and successful release
Chatting with Steve about sound strategies in the games user research area really helped me faciliate and set up proper playtests to be effective for our developers with as little participant bias as possible, culminating in a smooth and successful release of some of our recent content.
UX Research extraordinaire
Want to give Steve Bromley, UX Research extraordinaire, a giant shout-out.
Our Consumer Insights team is one team that runs a lot of market and ux research and over the last year we’ve had the pleasure of being able to tap into Steve’s brain on a number of occasions and he’s been incredibly helpful.
He has been extremely helpful as we work to support our various internal stakeholders with great research!
impacting studio business strategies
In creating a new games studio, I was eager to understand more about our players’ needs and motivations in playing games. Steve was able to turn my vague questions and hypotheses into actionable understanding based on real user feedback, which is impacting studio business strategies and the games we are making.
Steve was a trusted partner through this process – from research design, through execution and a delivery of a clear summary which is a constant reference point.
I’d have no hesitation in working with Steve in the future, and would recommend him to anyone who has questions about the people playing their games, or wants to learn more about user research for games.
fostered team building
He taught us how to plan, conduct, and analyze the results of Games User Research studies.
Steve is highly knowledgeable on the topic, a fact our team knows first-hand from working with him on research projects, so we knew the information shared would be reliable and relevant.
He designed the workshop to be hands-on, which kept the team engaged throughout and fostered team building. Steve was great at accommodating our needs, quick to respond to requests and the information he shared with us brought value to all workshop attendees. It was also genuinely fun, as each attendee playtested a game themselves and moderated a playtest for another attendee. In summary, it was a worthwhile, enjoyable workshop and our team will benefit from the insights we gained.
an expert in his field
Steve is an expert in his field, and his exceptional manner is very suited to working with a range of clients. I don’t hesitate to recommend him.
establishing a new process
Working with Steve to help validate the marketing plan for our game was great!
Steve helped us nail all the details and his calming presence made establishing a new process for our team feel more manageable.
I appreciated that he really listened to our needs to find the best value for us resources-wise. An overall positive experience!
valuable insights
When Gamecity Hamburg was preparing a playtesting session for local indie developers for the first time, Steve’s know-how was a great help. Thanks to his extensive experience, he was not only able to explain basics and detailed insights into the playtesting process, but he also gave the devs valuable tips tailored to their individual needs and game concepts.
Not only the teams, but also Gamecity Hamburg were very grateful for the valuable insights that Steve was able to convey to us in an easily understandable and clear way. Steve also went above and beyond, offering his advice and further materials after the workshop.
We look forward to possible future collaborations
will make a huge difference in our sales
As a company with no one who has formal training in user research and testing, Steve was able to train us to a level where we all feel comfortable and confident running our future tests.
Our work for hire studio struggles to convince clients of the benefits of including user research on projects, we couldn’t be happier with what Steve was able to teach us. Knowing how to communicate to clients a clear and comprehensive process will make a huge difference in our sales!
ensure our game is usable and fun for players
Steve ran games usability training for our entire game development team at MindForce Game Lab.
We all found the training extremely valuable, packed with practical guidance and it provided us with the tools and templates needed to run our own usability tests.
We’re looking forward to running more usability tests to ensure our game is usable and fun for players!
makes me more excited about making games
A very valuable and thorough experience, and it just generally makes me more excited about making games.
START WITH A CHAT
If you’re ready to unlock an iterative development process, hit milestones on time, and launch a game you’re confident in, get in touch below.
We’ll have a chat and answer any questions either of us have. After the call, we can decide if working together makes sense.