How to Record a Playtest

Important - Do a Practice Recording
Before you begin, we highly recommend that you do a 5 second practice recording to ensure that your microphone and video are recorded properly.

1. Launch an app and open the Meta System menu where you should see the options to “Resume” and “Quit”. Above the resume button, click the video camera icon, the second image from the left. Click this to start recording.

Note: If you keep your fingers pinched, you will access the quick menu, where it’s possible to drag your pinched fingers to a record icon. Please do not proceed with this option as it will NOT prompt you to record your microphone.

2. A confirmation window will appear. Check the “Include mic audio” toggle ON (it should turn blue) and press “Start recording”. A red dot will appear to indicate you are recording. DO NOT PLAY UNLESS YOU SEE THE RED DOT.

3. Pinch your fingers together and a small menu will appear. Please ensure that the microphone icon is grey. If not, select it and it should turn from white to grey.

4. When you are done testing, open up the Meta System Menu again and hit the recording button to stop the recording.

5. Head into the “Sharing” folder within your headset on the System Menu and open up the test recording. If you hear your voice and can see video, you are good to go!

Only after you have confirmed that your microphone was recorded properly should you continue!

Turn on Video and Microphone Recording

• Once you launch the game, please follow steps 1-3 in the 5 second practice recording.
• Click “Resume” to start the game. Please start your recording by “My name is _______ and this is my playtest of [Name of the App] on [Date]”

Best Practices During the Playtest

• Speak slowly, clearly and loud enough.
• While playtesting, you will be asked to narrate everything you are thinking aloud (self-talk) as much as possible. The more you describe what you are thinking and feeling the better! Be honest about what you dislike or struggle to get through, as well as what you enjoy and may want to see more of.
• We cannot read your mind so we ask you to act this way to help us understand your thinking process. Imagine you are describing what you are seeing, doing, and feeling to someone on a phone call with you who can’t see what you see while playing.
• Here’s a silly example of how self-talk would work in a playtest of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich:
• “Okay I’m looking for bread first, then peanut butter and jelly.”
• “I don’t want to get my hands dirty, so I’m planning to use a knife to move it from the jar to the bread.”
• “I’m just guessing at the right amount of peanut butter. I’ll go back for another scoop if it’s not enough.”
• “Oh I just noticed that I only have one knife here. I’m going to look for a sink to rinse it off so I don’t get PB in my jelly.”
• “I am trying to spread it evenly and put PB on one side and jelly on another.”
• “My last step is to put the two pieces of bread together, but it’s important that I keep the dry sides on the outside.”
• You can take the headset off at any point if you are uncomfortable. Just don’t forget to start the recording again when you restart. See “How to Record a Playtest in Virtual Reality (VR)”
• There is no way for you to do anything wrong during the test, anything that seems wrong is our fault!

Turn off recording

• To turn off your recording at the end of your playtest, take off the headset and it will stop and save the recording automatically.
• Alternatively you can open up the Meta System Menu again using pinch and release and hit the recording button to stop the recording.
• This means that if you take off your headset for a break, this will automatically end and save your recording. If you resume the game at a later time, you will have to go through the steps to turn on video and microphone recording again. See Turn on video and microphone recording above.

Submit your recording

• 1. Turn on your Meta headset and plug it into your computer using a USB-C cable
• 2. If the Meta appears as a drive, skip to step 9.
• 3. If the Meta does not appear as a drive on your computer, try the steps below:
• 4. If you are on a Mac, make sure to install Android File Transfer
• 5. Put on the headset and make sure that the guardian (safe-space boundary) is set up
• 6. Put on the headset and make sure to click “allow” in the “allow access to data” popup

• 7. If you don’t see the “allow access to data” popup, go to Settings → Developer and make sure that “USB connection dialog” is turned on.
• 8. Go to Settings → Developer and make sure that Developer Mode is turned on.
• 9. Go to your File explorer, open the Meta drive that appears on your computer, then navigate to: Oculus → VideoShots.
• 10. Now you can see all of the video files on your Meta. Drag and drop the video file to a location on your computer where you can easily find it.
• 11. Rename the video file name to your name, so we know which playtester it belongs to.
• 12. Transfer the video(s) as indicated in the document you received for the playtest.

After the Playtest

Our unreleased games are still in private development, and details are not to be leaked. That’s why we require playtesters to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) as they shouldn’t share any details of what they experience. Please dispose of the app and video recording file on your local devices once we’ve confirmed your playtest is complete and we’ve received your video recording.