Group items tagged

Abstract: "Abstract Game developers spend a large portion of their time developing and tweaking the articial intelligence in video games. Problems related to productivity in the development of AI have been solved using various modeling techniques in the eld of AI, language design and easier to use editors. Using a domain specic language to assist in describing AI can increase productivity in this area. In addition to this, game developers can be relieved from irrelevant tasks such as worrying about performance, correctness of the implementation, memory management and optimiza- tion data structures and focus on the high level description of the game play. In this thesis, we focus on real-time video games and we investigate the development of a domain-specic language containing the necessary elements to describe and execute strategies to achieve goals in a real-time video game. We develop a domain-specic language to express strategies for computer controlled actors using techniques commonly found in em- bedded domain-specic languages, and in particular embedded domain- specic languages in Haskell. To demonstrate this language we have developed a prototype of a real-time strategy game that uses strategies implemented using the domain-specic language developed in this thesis"

"The game enjoyment threshold model was used to evaluate player feedback in the feasibility study of a serious game, Wellness Partners. This game was purposefully developed as a web-based application that combines digital gaming and social networking to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. The game design team led by the second author consisted of current students and alumni at the Interactive Media Division at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. The primary participants were middle-aged university staff (egos) and they were asked to invite at least one family member or friend to enroll in the game as their wellness partners (alters). Players can accumulate points by sending status updates about their physical activities or setbacks. They can redeem their points to collect virtual objects or play animations of a virtual character related to healthy activities. A tag cloud is generated based the frequency of physical activities reported by members in a playgroup."

Abstract Virtual worlds give us the opportunity to explore another self, a virtual character of the real life you. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) have become extremely popular over the last decade. It has also grown into a lucrative business. To keep the players, the game needs to be more than just a game. This study aimed at finding out what factors that determine which features of the character creation interface that are most important to players. The following research question was formed; "Which underlying factors affect how important different features of the character creation interface are to experienced MMORPG players? To be able to answer the question an extensive literature review was conducted. A qualitative approach was taken. Long interviews were made with five participants, two female and three male players. The interviews took place while they created a number of avatars in different MMORPGs. The interviews were then followed up. During the follow-ups, the impact the character creation process had for the players, were discussed. The findings indicate that the character creation interface is important for the players to get a good gaming experience. However different types of players require different things. Important features for the users to change were mainly; the head; the name; and adding parts of yourself on your character. The factors that determined the importance of these features were found to be; Player types; Identity types; Immersion levels; and whether or not the game or the gaming experience were new to the player. Another finding showed that the longer you have played a game the less bizarre the different races, classes and gender will seem. The study also indicated that the female participants had a hard time identifying with their male characters."

Abstract: "This paper explores the possibilities of game-based learning within the context of a graphic design education. A global network now exists that puts all professionals in competition with one-another, and in order to stay competitive as educators, we must be able to produce professionals that can solve problems creatively. However, traditional teaching methods may in some contexts be unable to provide the kind of education students need, and initial research suggests that game-based learning may be a viable solution. This study establishes a framework of good game-based learning principles and a design for a video game to be used in a teaching environment. Primarily target audiences are teenage students, roughly ages 10 - 14, and college level undergraduate students, ages 18 - 25, of all genders. This video game is intended to teach players situated meanings for key visual communication concepts of grid and modularity, in a way that allows them to create high level relationships between these and their creative work."

"This paper investigates aspects of learning in museums through mobile games, i.e games that are played usually by groups of players, using mobile devices that allow interaction with the space and the exhibits and physical mobility of the players. It is argued that playing these games (which usually follow the pattern of scavenger hunt or role playing narratives), results in visitor engagement, motivation and knowledge about museum exhibits. Despite of these positive aspects, it has been observed that learning remains at the level of transfer of factual information about the exhibits. It is argued that in order to enrich the learning experience of game play we need to also involve the visitors in the process of designing mobile games for the museum."

Abstract: "As a way to support developers , we propose the creation of specialized tools to deal with accessibility. The hypothesis defined was that it is possible to produce tools that coul d reduce the cost and effort needed to adapt games for people with special needs while achi eving a sufficient level of usability and a pleasant player exper ience . Because of the ambitious of the approach , the goal of the project is to explore if it is feasible through preliminary research . T hree experiments were set up to cover and explore different alternatives , given the diversity of player characteristics and game develop ment approaches . In these experiments we targeted t wo different platforms: a desktop game authoring tool oriented to educators , and a mobile game development framework oriented to programmers . In these experiments we used the to ols developed to produce several games that were also tested by end users . While the project focuses on disability, the ideas proposed can be generalized and applied to support optimizing game interfaces for a wide and diverse audience."

Abstract: "Herein is proposed the creation of an Application Program- ming Interface (API) for the Unity 3 and 4 video game de- velopment engine that not only reads behavioral measures from traditional video game input devices (such as if there has been an increase in mouse movements and clicks) but also takes into account physiological measures from biomet- ric devices (such as an increase in respiratory rate). The API parses these inputs based on study results that correlated player performance and engagement with physio- logical signs across several dierent game genres. Through the use of several rudimentary machine learning algorithms, raw physiological data is transformed into data relevant to a developer, including player engagement. The results of these calculations allow a game designer to have powerful tools for detecting when players experience certain emotions, and al- low for the design of aective games. Furthermore, the API also exposes the raw data to de- velopers wishing to propose and utilize their own learning algorithms, to allow for a rich development environment for developers of all skill levels. These development tools will enrich the game experience for the player, as well as prepare designers for the use of the next wave of non-traditional in- put hardware. This report serves to illustrate the current status of the API. A brief overview of the signicance of galvonic skin re- sponse (GSR), heart rate (HR), and respiratory rate (RR) in detecting player performance and engagement will be fol- lowed by a discussion of the API itself and the design choices therein."

Abstract: "A key problem for crowd - sourced systems is motivating contributions from participants and ensuring the quality of these contributions. Games have been suggested as a motivational approach but there are concerns about data quality , particularly when the data are to be used for scientific research . To address these concerns, w e compare the quality of data obtained from two citizen science games, one a "gamified" version of a species classificatio n task and one a fantasy game that used the classification task only as a way to advance in the game play. Surprisingly, though we did observe cheating in the fantasy game, data quality from the two games was not significantly different . As well, the quali ty of data from short - time contributors was at a usable level. These findings suggest that games can be a useful way to motivate contributions to citizen science projects. "

abstract: "This work focuses on the design and implementation of an educational game for deployment on the Xbox 360 commercial game console. Video games can be extremely powerful and effective learning tools when deployed with methodical precision. Currently, no learning tools are available for commercial consoles that focus on teaching core concepts in Engineering. This work presents an overall design for an educational game to address Number Systems in the scope of the Electrical and Computer Engineering curricula. BINX is an educational adventure game designed to address Number Systems and their arithmetic operations in Digital Logic Design, a core course is Electrical and Computer Engineering programs. Object Oriented Design Principles were used in the development of this game. This work presents one sublevel implemented using the XNA framework - a Microsoft Software Development Kit (SDK).The BINX gameplay takes place inside a computer where a malicious virus is threatening the computer's operability. The player has to find the virus and eradicate it by disconnecting the terminals of the graphics processor. The player has the opportunity to practice before taking on the Boss Challenge. In the practice phase, the player practices number conversions without fear of penalties. In the Challenge phase, the player is timed and has to perform the number conversions before the allotted time expires. The combination of practice and challenge provides players with the ability to practice number conversions and, when ready, to take on the challenge task where assessment is conducted to provide the player with the knowledge of how well he/she has performed on the challenge. The number conversion level of BINX was implemented and formally evaluated showing improvement in student scores after using BINX."

"For the University of Pennsylvania, the 2011-2012 academic year has been dubbed "The Year of the Game." The University's various departments are all encouraged to weave games into curricula. The folks at Penn Nursing School, however, are taking it to a whole other level." Call for healthcare related games.

Abstract: "Older adults in nursing homes often lead sedentary lifestyles, which reduces their life expectancy. Full-body motion-control games provide an opportunity for these adults to remain active and engaged; but these games are not designed with age-related impairments in mind, which prevents the games from being leveraged to increase the activity levels of older adults. In this paper, we create a gardening game specifically addressing institutionalized older adults. Additionally, we present an evaluation of the game that demonstrates how full-body motion-control games can accommodate a variety of user abilities, have a positive effect on mood and, by extension, the emotional well-being of older adults, thereby increasing their quality of life."

Description in Google Books: "The Video Game Industry provides a platform for the research on the video game industry to draw a coherent and informative picture of this industry. Previously this has been done sparsely through conference papers, research articles, and popular science books. Although the study of this industry is still stigmatized as frivolous and 'only' game oriented, those who grew up with video games are changing things, especially research agendas, the acceptance of studies, and their interpretation. This book describes and defines video games as their own special medium. They are not pinball from which they grew, nor movies which they sometimes resemble. They are a unique form of entertainment based on meaningful interactions between individuals and machine across a growing sector of the population. The Video Game Industry provides a reference foundation for individuals seriously interested in the industry at the academic level. As a result, this book will serve as a reference in curricula associated with video game development for years to come. "

Abstract: "We introduce ALE, a new framework for writing games for the An- droid platform. The primary motivation behind ALE is to empha- size reading code before writing it. Beginners read game code to learn how levels can be made, and advanced users read the code of ALE itself to learn how to create useful and extensible libraries. To date, roughly 200 students at our university have used ALE, rang- ing from first-semester engineering undergraduates through Mas- ters students. ALE has proven useful in teaching non-majors about CS, in making introductory CS programming courses more excit- ing, and in encouraging creativity, entrepreneurship, and good pro- gram design in upper-level electives. Based on these experiences, we encourage educators at all levels to consider using ALE to im- prove students' ability to learn by reading code."

"What are the appropriate curriculum competencies for a secondary level Game Art and Design curriculum for technology education in the United States? There was an absence of research related to gaming education in the secondary level classroom, particularly in the field of technology education. This research strove to alleviate any impediments, while establishing curriculum competencies for a secondary Game Art and Design course framework."

Abstract: "Procedural content generation and design patterns could potentially be combined in several dierent ways in game design. This paper discusses how to combine the two, using automatic platform game level design as an example. The paper also present work towards a pattern-based level generator for Super Mario Bros, namely an analysis of the levels of the original Super Mario Bros game into 23 dierent patterns."

Abstract: "This article examines the need for public school educators to adapt a game design mentality when designing secondary level curriculum and instruction . Game design is presented as a tool for improving student learning and suggestions are offered for how educators can incorporate game dynamics such as narrative context, explicit interconnectedness, well - ordered problems, control, choice, customization, and co - design."

Abstract: "This symposium bri ngs together a range of gameful assessment designs at different levels of formal education to explore how gameful design might lead to greater student engagement and improved learning outcomes. We use the term "gameful assessment" to describe assessment fr ameworks or approaches that employ game design principles to foster student motivation and learning. The symposium examines systems in both K - 12 and higher education, and considers both the conceptual underpinnings of these systems and the design space of current tools developed to make it easier for instructors to implement gameful grading systems. Data related to the success (and struggles) of each system will be discussed."

Abstract- "What keeps a player in the game? What makes a game fun? In this paper, we present the results of our studies which may help answer these questions. We will discuss aspects of replayability and the possible existence of ecological effects within our data. Towards a game design methodology, we apply our results by proposing a mapping between core and casual levels in games and replayability aspects. We believe these results can aid software developers produce entertaining games with a long lasting appeal."

"This action research study investigated whether the combination of the appreciative learning approach as a pedagogical strategy and computer game development as a technological tool enhances student creativity in terms of the products produced. The study consisted of three phases. Phase I used an experimental design with randomized subjects and a control group to investigate the effectiveness of the combination of appreciative learning and computer game development for creativity enhancement. Phases II and III used a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design for the treatment group only. Subjects of the study consisted of 13 and 14-year-old students. Product creativity was evaluated through the Computer Game Assessment Inventory (COMGAIN). Findings in Phase I indicated that the treatment group produced more creative products than the control group. Improvements in the implementation of the appreciative learning approach and computer game development increased product creativity levels in Phases II and III. Thus, this study provides evidence of the transformational possibilities of the appreciative learning approach when combined with computer game development with regards to student creativity."

From the abstract: "In this paper, we propose the integration of two PCG-based approaches (experiencedriven and context-driven PCG) to support the generation of adaptive mobile game levels. We present and discuss the implementation of our approach in an existing game, 7's Wild Ride. Gameplay semantics and player modeling are used to steer a level generator, featuring a time-dependent dynamic diculty adjustment mechanism. From our two user studies, we conclude that (i) context-driven levels are preferable over traditional ones, and (ii) the game can adapt to dierent player types, keeping its gameplay balanced and player satisfaction."