Can learning how to do empirical research help a game developer?

Question

I know this may be an odd question, but I have the opportunity to take a graduate class that teaches how to do empirical research.

I've taken a Human-Computer Interaction class in the past where it was important to perform empirical studies to find out how users interact with your application and study what improvements can be made. I can see where doing the same type of empirical studies might be useful when developing a game.

Also, we get to choose the type of empirical research we do which I would choose to do on either computer graphics or game development. Would a class like this potentially be helpful for a wanna-be indie game developer?

Answer 1

Definitely. The reason? Because the more research you do of techniques used by those at the leading edge of your field, the better and more creative a [insert name of your profession here] you will become.

On a weekly basis, I read or at least skim over research papers on real-time raytracing, global illumination models, up-and-coming AI techniques, procedural generation, narratology and/or game design as well as other random topics in math and geometry. In fields you are new to, it will take you a while to grok the fundamentals, and you may sometimes feel stupid. Don't be intimidated. (This assumes you are not already post-grad or an otherwise seasoned researcher). The more you immerse yourself in that knowledge the sooner you will begin to see the bigger picture and the brilliance of the solutions documented. You don't have to read entire papers either. Sometimes just a skim through or looking at the results concluded in the study are enough.

I think it's all too common in the game development field not to think of ourselves as computer scientists. IMHO this is one reason why there's been an increasing lack of innovation since the mid-90's, and conversely an increasing interest in indie titles.

I've found another excellent place to research solutions that push the boundaries of available technology is the demo scene. In earlier days, many game developers (take Zyrinx/Lemon for example, the guys who developed AMOK) came from the ranks of demoscene coders, and I think in some parts of the world at least, this still happens a fair amount.

Answer 2

Probably. Certainly empirical research techniques have their place in game development -- usability studies, for example, or analysis of market data or marketing trends for competing games. Large studios conduct this kind of thing in one form or another (with varying degrees of rigidity with respect to the empirical model).

For an indie specifically, it can still be useful to know about, but in practice it would become more of a question of whether or not you have time to engage in serious market research (or resources to put forward in serious usability research) versus spending that time, money, et cetera on actually producing and polishing your game.