Babel starts game evaluation service

The new offer is run from the company’s Brighton and Montreal offices and is sure to raise eyebrows amongst developers and publishers as their titles can now be tested not just in terms of QA and submission-quality, but in terms of quality of experience with its level design and gameplay scrutinised by a team of testers.

Each team consists of testers of different experience levels who are charged with giving a ‘independent and trusted’ opinion to developers and publishers. Feedback from the teams advises on enhancements and design changes based on their experience in the title’s relevant genre or previous iterations. The idea is that Babel’s service can make games better, given that its testers have played the industry’s best selling games, so know what to expect from a quality title.

“We’re able to give an independent and dispassionate opinion to publisher and developer alike at various stages of the process,” said Algy Williams, Babel’s managing director (pictured).

“Using an outside source is particularly helpful when team members may be too close to a project to be entirely objective."

The service can also be used to help evaluate a game against its list of milestone deliverables and also provide focus-testing.

Babel has offices in Brighton and London, UK, Montreal, Canada and New Delhi, India which handle its already busy QA and localization services, mobile porting and testing, audio facilities and marketing services. Earlier this month Williams also confirmed that Babel would be moving into art outsourcing.