Becker Video Game Design

Abstract: "Among numerous classical statistics paradoxes, N - uel (for N ℕ \ {1}, because N - uel where N = 1 is clearly not that interesting!) problem shows that the fittest of all competitors does not necessarily win this competition. Truel, Quadruel, and Nuel is simply an extension of a duel tournament, which involves more than two people ( Pirates of Caribbe an three - way sword fight serves as an appropriate visual representation). In addition, each N - uel player actually may possess different winning maximization strategy , since the Nuel tournament is known to illustrate that a fitter/better competitor in a mul ti - entry survival type competition does not necessarily possess significantly higher chance of survival than others. It is my desire to see this process: I want to visualize the N - uel process as a third - person observer, and if a person was playing this as a video game (which I plan on developing via Java Programming), I also want to visualize the winning strategies each video game participant follows."

Abstract: "Serious games can help to improve efficacy of motor rehabilitation especially in a home environment. We introduce " The Sorcerer's Apprentice" , a serious game improving strength and mobility of the shoulder area targeting support of supervised phy siotherapy . It proposes a customizable environment for supplementary exercises in the context of rehabilitation for a one - sided Shoulder - Impingement - Syndrome. We introduce the medical background of the shoulder impingement syndrome, how the game aims to im prove the health status of the patients through several options of exercises and how these exercises are embedded into the flow of game play. We will further explain how motivational factors are implemented and which additional factors were relevant in the design process. As the game makes use of motion tracking for input, we utilized Microsoft Kinect as a low - cost IO device suitable for a home - environment use case. "

Abstract: "A game genre as diverse as that of computer role - playing games is difficult to overview. This poses challenges or both developers and researchers to position their work clearly within the genre. We present an overview of the genre based on clusterin g games with similar gameplay features . This allows a tracing of relations between subgenres through their gameplay , and connecting this to concrete game examples. The analysis was done through using gameplay design patterns to identify gameplay features a nd focused upon the combat systems in the games . The resulting cluster structure makes use of 321 patterns to create 37 different subgenre classifications based solely on gameplay features . In addition to the clusters, we identify four categories of patter ns that help designers and researchers understand the combat systems in computer role - playing games"

From the introduction "The method described in this review is based on the Machinations tool, written based on the book by Dormans (2012) and the accompanying paper, also by Dormans (20 11). After having researched the necessary elements to create this tool and created the first iterations (Dormans, 2008; 2009), Dormans created Machinations as a response to the call of Doug Church (Dormans, 2012, 21) for "formal abstract design tools" whi ch Church (1999) posted on Gamasutra, a game developer website. Machinations is a framework that uses automated, interactive diagrams to simulate and test the gameplay of a game before development, to see if there are any serious flaws in the design and if the game would have plausible (and more importantly, entertaining) progression and emergence. The diagrams represent the flow of resources in a game during, and the feedback structures that exist in, the gameplay, which can be interacted with during the d iagram's runtime."

Abstract: "Identifying and measuring a musical talent is not a simple task that could be performed by computers. In addition to the technical challenges, it also involves social, emotional and cultural issues. This problem is aggravated when the task needs to be performed taking as input the huge amount of music content available on the Internet today. In this paper we report work in progress on a social interactive Game with a Purpose using fun as a key motivational factor to assist in recruitment and measurement of musical talent. "

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."

from the introduction: "Collision avoidance and navigation among virtual agents is an important component of modern video games. Recent de- velopments in commodity hardware, in particular the utiliza- tion of multi-core and many-core architectures in personal computers and consoles are allowing large numbers of vir- tual agents to be incorporated into game levels in increasing numbers and with increasing fidelity. As a result, there is a need for efficient techniques to automatically generate real- istic behaviors for such groups of virtual agents"

Abstract: "Player coordination is a key element in many multi-player real-time digital games and cooperative real-time multi-player modes are now common in many digital-game genres. Coordination is an important part of the design of these games for several reasons: coordination can change the game balance and the level of difficulty as different types and degrees of coordination can make the game easier or more difficult; coordination is an important part of 'playing like a team' which affects the quality of play; and coordination as a shared activity is a key to sociality that can add to the sociability of the game. Being able to exercise control over the design of these coordination requirements is an important part of developing successful games. However, it is currently difficult to understand, describe, analyze or design coordination requirements in game situations, because current frameworks and theories do not mesh with the realities of video game design. I developed a new framework (called PLATO) that can help game designers to understand, describe, design and manipulate coordination episodes. The framework deals with five atomic aspects of coordinated activity: Players, Locations, Actions, Time, and Objects. PLATO provides a vocabulary, methodology and diagram notation for describing and analyzing coordination. I demonstrate the framework's utility by describing coordination situations from existing games, and by showing how PLATO can be used to understand and redesign coordination requirements."

Abstract: "HCI scholars have been among those attracted to the study of online, computer-supported gaming. "Big Data" approaches, which analyze electronic traces left by game play, are an increasingly popular way to study it. This paper identifies basic epistemological problems in some such approaches, focusing on those that implicitly depend on the assumption that game play is fundamentally the same as other social activity. The paper explains why this and related assumptions are questionable, and why these Big Data approaches cannot establish their validity on their own. The paper then reports some results of a preliminary ethnographic study of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), in order to illustrate a way that ethnography can provide an initial purchase on how the underlying similarity/dissimilarity issue can be studied. It concludes by explaining how methodological triangulation, involving a dialectical discourse between ethnography, on the one hand, and Big Data and similar approaches, on the other, may be able to place Game Studies on a firmer epistemological foundation. It is the attempt to achieve such significant objectives, in particular to justify a foundational critique of a major new development in Game Studies, and to do so in a single paper, that justify inclusion of the paper in alt.chi. "

Abstract: "Cinematography is a key aspect in the development of mod- ern computer games. The quality of the visuals depends, not only on the accuracy of the rendering, but on the way that the scene is presented to the player. Which element should be included in the frame, from which point of view and in which positions are all aspects that have been widely stud- ied in classical cinematography. However, it is still unclear how the principles developed for the lm medium are ap- plicable to an interactive medium such as computer games. This article presents a study, which explores the interplay between cinematography and player experience. The results of the experiment demonstrate the existence of an impact of the cinematographic behaviour of camera on both player's aect and her in-game behaviour. Furthermore, this impact is dependent on the game mechanics highlighting once more the dierence between classic cinematography and game cin- ematography"

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"

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: "A number of changes are occurring in the field of computer game development: persistent online games, digital distribution platforms, social and mobile games, and the emer- gence of new business models have pushed game development to put heavier emphasis on the live operation of games. Artificial intelligence has long been an important part of game development practices. The forces of change in the industry present an opportunity for Game AI to have new and profound impact on game development practices. Specifically, Game AI agents should act as "producers" responsible for managing a long-running set of live games, their player communities, and real-world context. We characterize a confluence of four major forces at play in the games industry today, together producing a wealth of data that opens unique research opportunities and challenges for Game AI as producers. We enumerate 12 new research areas spawned by these forces and steps toward how they can be addressed by data-driven Game AI Producers"

Abstract: "This paper explores the use of modern sensor technologies for physical interaction on educati onal games and interactive spaces. More specifically the thesis studies the potential effect of motion capture and wearable body sensors on educational interactive games, on two aspects: i) on the involvement of human body and motion in the process of lear ning, and recall of knowledge (embodied learning), ii) on assisting the development of basic social emotional competencies, through the enhanced social affordances of embodied games. The paper presents a prototype of an educational game developed using a m otion capture controller and two bio feedback sensors, proposing a generic architecture for multi sensor interactive spaces. Finally the paper provides a review of previously studied modalities for emotion recognition, and examines their application on gam e mechanics and AI game agents."

Abstract: "Application domains for Computational Creativity projects range from musical composition to recipe design, but despite all of these systems having computational methods in com- mon, we are aware of no projects to date that focus on pro- gram code as the created artefact. We present the Mechanic Miner tool for inventing new concepts for videogame inter- action which works by inspecting, modifying and executing code. We describe the system in detail and report on an eval- uation based on a large survey of people playing games using content it produced. We use this to raise issues regarding the assessment of code as a created artefact and to discuss future directions for Computational Creativity research."

The author reports data from a 2012 study on the diversity characteristics of students in game programs in the United States and future workforce implications.

Abstract: "We propose a powerful new tool for conducting research on computational intelligence and games. 'PyVGDL' is a simple, high-level description language for 2D video games, and the accompanying software library permits parsing and instantly playing those games. The streamlined design of the language is based on defining locations and dynamics for simple building blocks, and the interaction effects when such objects collide, all of which are provided in a rich ontology. It can be used to quickly design games, without needing to deal with control structures, and the concise language is also accessible to generative approaches. We show how the dynamics of many classical games can be generated from a few lines of PyVGDL."

Abstract: "In this paper, we describe a methodology for capturing player experience while interacting with a game and we present a data-driven approach for modeling this interaction. We believe the best way to adapt games to a specic player is to use quantitative models of player ex- perience derived from the in-game interaction. Therefore, we rely on crowd-sourced data collected about game context, players behavior and players self-reports of dierent aective states. Based on this informa- tion, we construct estimators of player experience using neuroevolution- ary preference learning. We present the experimental setup and the re- sults obtained from a recent case study where accurate estimators were constructed based on information collected from players playing a rst- person shooter game. The framework presented is part of a bigger picture where the generated models are utilized to tailor content generation to particular player's needs and playing characteristics."

From the introduction::"The main objective of this chapter is focused on how to exploit the evolution of technology to improve user interaction in game environments through digitalized objects with identifi‐ cation technology (such as RFID or Near Field Communication). Digitalized objects are used as interaction resources. They are used in conjunction with mobile devices providing the performance of tasks with a simple and intuitive gesture. In the first place, mobile devices offer sophisticated methods to provide users with services to make use of information and to interact with objects in the real world. In the second place, physical objects are associated with digital information through identification technologies such as RFID. In this context, physical mobile interactions allow users to play games through natural interaction with ob‐ jects in the real world. This chapter has six sections. Section 2 describes some concepts such as: Ubiquitous Computing, the Internet of Things and the types of interaction used in games. Section 3 presents the general infrastructure of RFID systems. In section 4, we de‐ scribe the development of two RFID games. In section 5 their advantages and disadvantages are presented. Finally, conclusions are set out in Section 6."

Abstract: " wanted to inspect how developing a game from a purely commercial pe rspective a ffect s on the game design. The purpose of this thesis is to define the valid aspects of product marketing for games , how they are perceived in game industry and how those aspects affect to the game design. The question I am asking is how to make marketing a flue nt part of indie game development process. Through m y thesis project, Puzzleplatf orm, I s tudy how the marketing aspects affect the game concept itself and how the se aspects can be implemented in the game concept."