Keywords Studios is the ultimate hub for talent in the AAA game development industry. We're a major player in gaming, with a global network of over 70+ studios across 26 countries, each with its own unique culture and expertise. Our collaborative approach sets us apart as the top choice for technical and creative services for renowned console and mobile game developers worldwide. We offer industry-leading solutions such as game development, art services, marketing, globalization, quality assurance, player support and more.

Now, we extend a warm invitation for you to explore new career opportunities with us.

About Player Research

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 realize 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 Brighton and Montreal studios we design and conduct award-winning user experience studies for video games: 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 external research studio we collaborate far and wide: game developers, publishers, platform owners, incubators, indies, and beyond. Around one third of our projects are commissioned by games user research teams inside studios and publishers to extend their reach and capabilities.

Hundreds of game development studios rely on our insights into usability, UX, appeal, and 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 rigor. And we’d love to make you a part of it.

Player Research is an exceptional place to work and grow.

Our team is a healthy mix of expert practitioners and academically trained staff, each bringing their unique perspectives; each offering rich insight to our client studios, and one another.

We maintain a strong vision of company culture and values: rooted in deeply-held trust and empathy among peers, deliberate communication, self-determination, and taking pride in the work we deliver together.

Do you fit the role?

You are a few years into your games user research career, in a commercial setting. You bring a passion for games, psychology, and applied user research. You’re winning the trust of your stakeholders and colleagues, and you want to take on bigger challenges. You’re ready for a career turbo-charge: more stakeholder time, more ownership of projects, and more responsibility for insight.

We expect you to bring unique and relevant knowledge from your prior academic and industry experience, and in turn help your co-workers deliver evermore persuasive consultative guidance to our client teams.  You’ll work alongside Researchers, Participant Coordinators, Client Relations Managers and more, building your knowledge and practice of user research as a key part of our vibrant and impactful agency.

You’re passionate about seeing effective research delivered, be that longform or short form studies. You have a strong instinct for what good study design looks like, can anticipate obstacles and identify solutions to tackle them. You are ready for the move from tactical execution towards strategic client partnership, all toward making unforgettable games through player-centric development.

All of our Games User Researchers execute research as part of small, agile teams. Partnered with our highly experienced, world-class Games User Researchers, you will confidently contribute to the entire process of running successful playtests and expert-led research.  Our smoothly run and insightful studies reliably help developers understand their audience and improve game design.

Core Responsibilities

Being our clients’ trusted point-of-contact for advice and consultancy, nurturing long-term, high-quality client relationships Applying our client-centric strategy, in partnership with our client Relations team, focusing on meeting client needs through campaigns of research; overseeing how each project matures our clients’ understanding of research, and joining-up both processes and insights from one project to the next Building research roadmaps and proposals for insightful individual studies, promising extraordinary business and creative value: wowing our clients and winning our pitches Using your initiative to improve our internal processes for the benefit of colleagues and clients Capturing your knowledge in training materials, articles, talks, and mentoring your colleagues.  Acting as an ambassador, speaking, writing and educating the world on the importance of games user research Designing, scoping, project managing and delivering exceptional games user research, on time and on budget Executing a variety of methods including large lab playtests, usability playtests, writing competitor and expert analyses, remote research studies, desk and secondary research Presenting to clients. Owning the responsibility to effectively embed our findings and player-centric design philosophy into their development processes Applying continuous improvement of yourself through training, writing, and evaluating video game UX

Management: You’ll have two managers: a People Manager and a global Head of Research Craft, ensuring your professional and technical skill growth respectively.