Freelance Researcher Application
We’re seeking player researchers to work on a project-by-project basis.
We are looking for experienced Games User Researchers available for freelance work to contribute to our research projects.
You’ll support us executing in-person research in the UK, Canada, United States, or Japan, or provide research execution support remotely.
Player Research delivers research projects with our small, agile teams. You’ll partner with our highly experienced, world-class team, to confidently contribute to the entire process of running successful playtests and expert-led research. Under the Player Research banner you will be delivering an exceptional client experience, and top-quality insight: helping developers understand their player audience and improve game design
About Us
At Player Research we want the world to experience brilliant games; ones full of adventure, surprise and intrigue – the ones you can’t put down, and those you talk about for days.
Across the world we partner with game development teams to realise their creative visions by providing meaningful insight into how real players experience play.
We are the world’s premier partner for games user research. From our hub studios we design and conduct award-winning user experience studies for video games globally: usability testing, expert reviews, engagement diaries, full playthroughs, training courses, accessibility testing… and so much more.
We uncover insights that drive game development forward.
As an independent research studio we collaborate far and wide: game developers, publishers, platform owners, incubators, indies, investors and beyond. Around a third of our projects are commissioned by games user research teams inside studios and publishers to extend their reach and capabilities.
Hundreds of gamedev teams rely on our insights into usability, UX, appeal, & play.
Our projects come in all shapes and sizes, from testing user interfaces to interviewing super-fans; game console UI improvement, to toys-to-life; AAA full-playthroughs, discovery research, difficulty balancing, narrative comprehension, and so much more. Our consultant Researchers are brought into the heart of design decision-making in projects of all types. Some spanning years of development, some as one-off studies. We are exceptionally proud of our decade-long reputation for authenticity, transparency and rigour.
Do you fit the brief?
- You are an experienced Games User Researcher with a minimum of 4 years commercial user research experience, either in a games or mainstream technology setting
- You bring a passion for game design, player psychology, and applied research practice
- Experience executing varied user research methodologies, including writing questionnaires, running user research studies, and conducting competitor and/or expert analysis
- A rich understanding of the game development process, and the role (and limitations of) user research at each development stage
- You have a leadership mindset, with strong intuition for what a great research outcome looks like, ability to anticipate obstacles and solutions to tackle them
- An expert communicator, bringing stakeholders of all types together around workable goals, effective methods, and insightful findings
- Must be comfortable within virtual reality (VR). Experience working with wearable technology, AR/MR, or other cutting-edge game technologies, is a bonus
- Multilingual candidates able to interview playtesters and interact with our international stakeholders (particularly in French and Japanese), is a bonus
Core Responsibilities
- You’ll be provided an overview of the study on a project-by-project basis, with clear milestones. Most projects require 10 to 15 working days of paid engagement
- Executing a variety of methods including large lab playtests, concept tests, usability playtests, writing competitor and expert analyses, remote research studies, desk and secondary research, in partnership with our team
- Analysing findings and writing compelling, actionable reports tailored to our gamedev clients’ research aims
- Presenting findings and research-backed UX/UI recommendations to clients, to effectively embed user feedback and player-centric design philosophy into their development processes
- We will supply you with the hardware and software required for each project.
Location
- We are seeking freelancers to support the execution of in-person playtesting in the following locations:
- Brighton, UK
- Montreal, Canada
- Los Angeles, USA
- Tokyo, Japan
- Not nearby? We have occasional need for remote researchers.
Our team work hybrid from our playtest labs and pop-up playtesting events in these locations, so commuting distance to these key cities is highly valued.
Please identify on your application your current location, your ability to commute or travel to the locations listed above, and whether you have an existing right to work in any of the locations listed.
