Push us to the limit
Our ambition is to create state-of-the art games, and to do so we need your feedback.
Your opinion is what drives us, and by becoming a playtester, you have the opportunity to tell us what you like and don’t like about our games. Even more importantly, we get to see how you - the player - interact with the game.
If you live in or near Malmö, we would love for you to sign up. Anyone is welcome and we need all types of players in order to make the best games possible.
Players come in all shapes and forms and we encourage everyone in the Skåne region who are interested to apply! And you don’t have to be an expert gamer or have played our games to sign up.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, who you are, or if you’re a person with disabilities – we welcome everyone, and every unique perspective offers us valuable insights on how to improve our games. It’s not only because we care about inclusivity and diversity (which we really do!) but also because it provides us with the most accurate data, since our players are so varied and different.
We don’t want you to feel like you struggle and feel that you’re not enjoying yourself. But as long as you’re willing to try it and feel that you’re having a good experience, we encourage you to come!
Another mystery to solve is how we select our playtesters.
If you sign up to become a playtester, you are added to our Massive database. Depending on the test, we have different sets of criteria we need to fulfil to make the study scientific and statistically valid, often meaning that we are looking for as a wide sample as possible. For example, we could then use these criteria to draw a random selection from our database.
An example of a criteria we might look at is your play history. We might want to test a certain feature for a project that requires specific knowledge of a game or genre, so we would need playtesters with that particular knowledge or skills.
This is especially important when we look at testing changes to a game that already exists. If you have played the game before, you can better determine if you think the changes are good or not! But don’t worry, different tests have different criteria, and we have plenty of tests that don’t require any previous skills or knowledge about games.
One of the most important things we look for are availability and location. Since most of our tests are on-site due to security, we want you to be located relatively close to our studio in Malmö. This is mainly because we can never tell you beforehand what you are testing, and if it’s a 30 minutes test, we don’t want you to waste an entire day on I mean, if you really want to, it’s entirely up to you.
But – as said before – the most important thing is that we try to be as inclusive as possible, to reflect and represent all the voices of all the different players out there that are playing and enjoying our games.
Will you get compensated? Yes!
At Massive, we give you both monetary compensation for your time and free lunch, drinks, and fika (that is, coffee, tea, and snacks in Swedish).
We never require you to prepare yourself for a test. That is something we take very seriously, as we want you to remain as unbiased as possible!
Usually, our production either approaches us with something that needs to be tested, or they need some knowledge on a specific area before they want to make a decision. It’s our job to assist them in helping them making the most informed decisions by providing them with relevant data and research.
It can be anything from the general feeling of a whole game or very specifically, for example, how you click on different buttons.
In general, our playtesting looks at the broader appeal, flow, and feel, contrary to our in-house Quality Control team, which is more technically oriented.
We appreciate if you tell us if you find bugs or technical errors (and we do report them!), but usually this is not what we’re testing (we have our amazing Quality Control team for that). So please, make sure you understand what we’re asking of you in the test, so you don’t focus on things we are not looking at in that test.
The tests also vary in time. Some tests last 30 minutes to an hour, while some – mainly those that require extensive playthroughs of a game – can last several days or even weeks.
We can’t really say what makes a playtester “good” or “bad” since it’s not really something you can be good or bad at, but having an open mind and being truthful to the questions we ask is absolutely vital.
We just want the truth, so we know in which direction to go – we’ll get it somehow!
And do we only want to hear good things? No! More often than not, negative feedback can be even more valuable than only positive feedback – we want it to be honest! And you can never make a mistake when playtesting – everything you do matters in one way or another.
The people in the Games Lab are not production, and there is never a developer in the room during the test. We have to remain unbiased and neutral. So even if that means that you didn’t like any of what you tested the whole day, please tell us! We want to hear this.
We are always looking for the truth to guide us to make our games the best possible for as many people as possible.
And we can’t make that happen without you, the players.
Nothing beats the feeling of being part of the creation of a completely new game. This is your chance to be on the ground floor of game development. Feedback from playtesters is a large part of shaping and refining the gaming experience. Everyone has a valuable role to play.
