It’s funny. I was reading my not-so-secret daily addiction, Kotaku, Wednesday morning when I found a “phone camera” shot of a community focus test for Plunder that myself, along with Max Hoberman and David Bowman(from dev-friends Certain Affinity) were running less than 24 hours ago. (That’s actually David pointing in the shot, probably using his low-key teacher voice to ‘suggest’ ways to crush the other team.) Now, I’m used to ‘crazy secret phone camera’ shots when they’re in Car and Driver or sites that you want to clear your web browser history after visiting. But focus groups?

I’ve been at Capcom since late August, lucky enough to be a part of the Capcom USA Product Development rebirth, as described by Adam Boyes, our ever-caffeinated Director of Production (he’s the only OTHER guy besides me that can drink his weight in Diet Pepsi in one day–seriously) in this Help Wanted ad. I’m still fascinated by what the Internets and the Capcom community can dig up about what we’re up to. It’s awesome. Another thing the Capcom community can do well besides net sleuthing: Focus Testing!

I’ve been doing these things long enough to increase my gray hair count by six-fold. They’re a designer’s best friend and worst nightmares. They uncover painful issues with a game that make even the most stone-faced of designers look constipated. To find focus testers, most companies randomly hire a company to grab game players or soccer-moms that fit certain criteria. At Capcom USA, it’s much, much more glamorous than that: you apply and Seth sorts out the applications when he can take a break from making everyone in the office look like idiots at Street Fighter 4. (By the way, I think Seth gives preferential treatment to testers with goatees.)

However he picks, it works: Capcom Community Focus Testers are freakin’ smart. In my short experience, our community has been much better than everyone else at pointing out issues with gameplay and cool features to have, in addition to exposing substantial tuning issues. Let me show you a couple really quick examples in our WotB: Commando 3 Focus Test:

In the beginning of Level 1, we introduce the three-player Uber-Humvee (shown above.) Everyone loved the Humvee and wished they had more time with it right away. One tester pointed out exactly where he wanted to use it – right in the middle of all of these spawn points. As a result, we pushed back the vehicle barricades much further down the level. Done and done! (See Below.)

Another tester mentioned how cool it was to just drive over guys in C3’s 3-man Humvee, so we added an Achievement that rewarded running over soldiers. My only regret: we should have named it after him instead of calling it Road Rage.

Most Focus Group feedback usually manifests itself in balancing or usability improvements. Commando 3, erm, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3’s UI looks much different than it used months ago and as an added bonus, you don’t need a Physics Degree to get past Level 1 anymore. But don’t worry, there’s still a difficulty level that’s “Capcom Hard.” That’s another term I’ve heard from the Capcom community, by the way.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Capcom Hard, Community, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, Developer Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.