When making a video game it can be hard to tell if your audience will enjoy it or not. You can test it over and over again, but you still may never find out what you would if you saw others actually playing it. This can be especially difficult for those who do not come from a background in gaming, such as Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park. Luckily, they had an ace in the hole for their latest title, South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
This ace is actually none of than famed YouTube let’s player, Pewdiepie. How exactly did he help this duo? Well, he played their game on the Internet for all to see. In a small behind-the-scenes video for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Trey Parker talked about how his 15 episode long series playing South Park: The Stick of Truth really gave them some insight. “It was just the best material I could have because it was like, I was watching an audience member playing and what they were thinking about,” he stated.“And [Pewdiepie’s] going, ‘Well, this part’s lame,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, that part’s lame,’ and it was just great to have that as a resource.”
It would certainly be interesting if more game developers looked to let’s play videos to figure out what their audience is thinking. The medium has certainly been used for exposure, so why not for some extra insight. South Park: The Fractured But Whole will be released December 6th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.