Sebastian is General Manager of Player Research, a Keywords Studio, the premier partner for insight into players and play. He is a passionate evangelist for player insight in gamedev, leading 200+ projects at Player Research, both as researcher and as research strategist. He authored two chapters of the Games User Research book, regularly lectures on topics around user research and UX, and in 2017 was accepted as a Member of BAFTA.

Abstract:

Exporting Chinese games across the world requires care and collaboration, in order to share Chinese cultural values and creative products with the world.

This session covers two essential aspects of global entertainment: the players, and the content.

Designing games that appeal to a global audience means first agreeing who our audience are. Game designers must be able to imagine their players: “Who are they? How are they different to us?”. If there is no agreement on who our players are, or what they consider ‘high quality’, then how do we make good creative decisions every day? This is a difficult task, but if creatives and studio leadership don’t know where they’re going, then every road will take them there. Sebastian Long shares tools and approaches to help studios agree: “what does high-quality game design look like to our players?”.

Deploying games to unique regions requires local knowledge, and operations that understand the meaning of ‘high quality’ in that region. Keywords Client Director for China, Li Tang, shares learnings from the international success of Chinese games like Dragon Blood in Japan. Each features an in-depth approach to culture, for example in Voice Over through a careful selection of voice actors, and culture-relevant delivery of voice performance.

Two veterans in the videogame industry will take the audience through this journey: Li Tang, Client Director for China at Keywords Studios China, and Sebastian Long GM of Player Research, a Keywords Studio.