How play-testing with kids helped build Skylanders SuperChargers

The Skylanders franchise can be enjoyed by any age, but there's no doubt it's aimed at younger kids. With a focus on that crowd, Activision likes to bring in younger kids to play-test levels as they're being built. This leads to ideas getting the green-light or being nixed altogether. You can read some details below on that process.

- ideas are born out of internal game jams at Vicarious Visions
- ideas are fleshed out into something playable
- children come in to play-test these ideas
- if the kids didn’t remember the unique elements of a level, they’d rework it or scrap it
- one level features the Skylanders becoming super-sized, making them big enough to stomp down their surroundings
- this ideas went through co-op play-testing with two children
- the play-test went over so well with the children that idea was fully fleshed out an appears in the final game