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Vertical Slice

Games research lab offering free services to most worthy.

The winning studio can be from any country, as long as they currently have some form of permanent staff in the UK. They can also be at any stage of game development, and the services encompassed in the prize can be fully customisable in order to most effectively benefit the victor. The services that are available to the winning company include:

·         Playtesting

·         Thorough behavioural analysis of gameplay

·         Biometric data and analysis (emotional understanding)

·         Biometric storyboards: a minute-by-minute annotated graph of player reactions to the game's key beats.

·         Player interviews

·         Video highlights reel, which includes: video of actual gameplay, video of facial expression, video of body posture and real-time biometrics data

·         Report with review score prediction produced by a team of prestigious & experienced professional journalists

·         Bespoke participant recruitment of players, each carefully selected with the winner's desired criteria in mind

·         Focus groups and discussion sessions

·         Structured and indexed breakdown of specific game problems, alongside potential solutions specially suggested by a professional game designer

·         A full team presentation of our findings alongside a tailored developer workshop at the winner's workplace

·         Access to our raw data upon request

·         Potential inclusion of client's work in publicity materials and in Vertical Slice's renowned conference and academic journal content

Applicants must be involved in the development of video games for the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC, Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, web mediums or any iOS platform. To enter this competition for your chance to win, send a few sentences describing who you are, which game you would like to use the services on (optional), and why you think usability testing is important to the future of the games industry to joel@verticalslice.co.uk . All applicable content included in the submission can be confidential and will remain in adherence to NDAs if necessary.

Submissions must be received by February the 7th. Good Luck!

About Vertical Slice: Vertical Slice were the first company in the UK to solely focus on improving the quality of video games from the perspective of the player. Instead of focusing on bug finding and traditional QA methods, Vertical Slice pioneer the use of novel techniques to effectively improve the critical and commercial success of games. Their incredible use of biometrics, review prediction, multimedia reports, data analysis and other approaches to usability testing have been featured at dozens of conferences and events, and have been used in the development of a number of prolific and successful titles. Vertical Slice perform their magic with some of the biggest game publishers and developers in the world.

For more information, please visit verticalslice.co.uk or follow @vsgr

Joel Windels | Community Manager | Vertical Slice | 07847 425852 | joel@verticalslice.co.uk  

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