I do pro bono UXR work for indie studios because I love doing it and everyone could use some user insights.
I find deep satisfaction in working on games that could benefit from user research but may not have the resources to support it. It’s a meaningful way to put the skills I’ve built over the past couple of decades to good use—helping teams better understand their design, their players, and the value of user research itself. And I called it Tiger Jaws. Yes, you read that correctly.
Sometimes that means offering simple guidance—like how to build a participant panel or run a basic usability test. Other times, it involves designing, fielding, and analyzing a survey. And in some cases, I’ll lead and livestream usability studies and deliver a full report of findings and recommendations.
“When I started my own independent games studio, and released Airborne Empire into Early Access, Rich reached out to help us with UXR.
“Even though the scale of the game, the audience, and the dev team is small, the insights Rich provided us were extremely valuable and helped us focus on the most important aspects of the game.
“I have really enjoyed working with Rich. His methodology is very well thought out and professionally executed, and he also just knows games really well. We will definitely work with him again on future games.”
— Zach Mumbach, Lead Designer | Founder of The Wandering Band
Other indie games I advised about UXR.
If you’re interested in chatting more about how user research might improve your game, reach out so we can chat. You’ve got nothing to lose.
