Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Playability of Games

Heuristics have become an accepted and widely used ad-junct method of usability evaluation in Internet and soft-ware development. This report introduces Heuristic Evaluation for Playability (HEP), a comprehensive set of heuristics for playability, based on the literature on pro-ductivity and playtesting heuristics that were specifically tailored to evaluate video, computer, and board games. These heuristics were tested on an evolving game design to assess their face validity and evaluation effectiveness compared to more standard user testing methodologies. The results suggest that HEP identified qualitative simi-larities and differences with user testing and that HEP is best suited for evaluating general issues in the early de-velopment phases with a prototype or mock-up. Com-bined with user studies, HEP offers a new method for the HCI game community that can result in a more usable and playable game. Categories and Subject Descriptors