Using heuristics to evaluate the playability of games

Abstract

Heuristics have become an accepted and widely used adjunct method of usability evaluation in Internet and software development. This report introduces Heuristic Evaluation for Playability (HEP), a comprehensive set of heuristics for playability, based on the literature on productivity and playtesting heuristics that were specifically tailored to evaluate video, computer, and board games. These heuristics were tested on an evolving game design to assess their face validity and evaluation effectiveness compared to more standard user testing methodologies. The results suggest that HEP identified qualitative similarities and differences with user testing and that HEP is best suited for evaluating general issues in the early development phases with a prototype or mock-up. Combined with user studies, HEP offers a new method for the HCI game community that can result in a more usable and playable game.

Evaluating Affective User-Centered Design of Video Games Using Qualitative Methods

“…The work done by Desurvire, Caplan, and Toth [37] as well as Juul and Norton [38] highlighted the importance to vary a level's difficulty gameplay to ensure user faces good challenge while developing mastery in gameplay. Thus, it is important to vary a level's difficulty to ensure the user faces a good challenge while developing mastery in the gameplay.…”

Diabetic Mario: Designing and Evaluating Mobile Games for Diabetes Education

“…A number of usability heuristics have been proposed for evaluating digital games over the years ( [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]). The initial set of heuristics proposed by Malone [6] were categorised into three types: challenges, fantasy, and curiosity.…”

“…Federoff [8] proposed a list of forty heuristics that focused on gameplay, engagement and storyline elements. Desurvire et al [9] proposed heuristics in four categories; game-play, game-story, game-mechanics and game-usability. Korhonen & Koivisto [11] proposed 29 heuristics categorised in terms of 'Game-Usability', 'Game-Mobility' and 'Game-Play'.…”

A Game Prototype for Basic Process Model Elicitation

“…Examples are: "I was satisfied with the result when I was done" and "I felt the score was a fair representation of how well I was doing". The statements are based on known properties of successful games, described in game design literature [11,17,18] and on general usability heuristics [19].…”