This thesis compares the different concepts of game narrative and traditional narrative, and aims to explore and analyze the relationship between visual elements and game narrative in video games. Game narrative is an emerging narrative based on digital media. It can not only include stories from traditional narratives, but also convey narratives through the virtual environment and mechanisms of games. This thesis discusses the concepts of traditional narrative and game narrative from the basic concepts of narrative, and lists different visual narrative elements and video games of different narrative types on this basis. In addition, this thesis designs a study that includes different dimensions of immersion to investigate the impact of narratives conveyed through visual elements on player immersion.

This study examines the impact of forewarning video game players about the difficulty level. The intention behind this is to ascertain whether or not there are effects from doing so and to explore what kind of implications they might have. The data collection was achieved by allowing participants to play three consecutive levels in a video game. The difficulty of the task was measured using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and the completion time of the levels. The data analysis showed that there is an effect on the players’ feeling of workload when forewarned about the difficulty level in a video game. We highlight implications that our data can have when designing games, things designers might have to keep in mind, and we compare our findings with what other studies have found relating to research into difficulty. / Den här studien undersöker effekten av att förvarna spelare av digitala spel om svårighetsgraden. Avsikten bakom detta är att ta reda på om det finns effekter av att göra det eller inte och att undersöka vilken typ av implikationer det kan ha. Datainsamlingen åstadkoms genom att låta varje deltagare spela tre konsekutiva banor i ett digitalt spel. Den upplevda svårighetsgraden mättes med hjälp av NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) och tiden det tog att klara banorna. Dataanalysen visade att det finns en effekt på spelarnas känsla av arbetsbelastning när de förvarnas om svårighetsgraden i ett digitalt spel. Vi lyfter fram implikationer som vår data kan ha när man designar spel, saker som designers kan behöva tänka på, och vi jämför våra resultat med vad andra studier har funnit rörande forskning om svårighetsgrad.

The video game industry has gone through a dramatic change over the last few decades, yetseveral reports show that there are currently many challenges that developers face in their dailywork. A major challenge includes difficulties of getting projects to close within set time andresource restraints. This is something that indicates a connection to the management methodsbeing used, among which Agile management is a popular framework that many turn to. Thisthesis searches for connections between challenges in video game development and the usage ofagile methods like Scrum and Kanban. For this, a qualitative research strategy was used in orderto look into the experiences of video game developers. Five semi-structured interviews with atotal of eleven respondents were conducted. As a complement, a quantitative web-based surveywas made where 23 people participated. The results of this study show that challengespreviously defined within the video game industry, including feature creep, crunch periods anda stressful work pace can also be identified in the industry in southern Sweden to some extent.Underlying patterns indicate the industrial culture as an explanation for an incorrectimplementation of agile methods, which could eventually lead to issues surrounding riskmanagement in projects.

This report covers the eight week design project for the Thesis Project 1 and it looks at both the process and the results of this project. Through an iterative prototyping process a prototype was created to answer the research question: “What gameplay mechanics are required for a fighting style video game to allow for analog input in its character movements and do these mechanics allow for more natural controls and mastery?” Together with research into academic writing in the fields of neurology, embodied design and game design it was concluded that an analog control scheme, within the context of a video game that allows for that type of affordance, gives the user more natural control over the character they are playing. This was validated by playtesting the prototype with several users. However, the richness of the mastery of a game relies heavily on the implemented game elements in a finalized game and was therefore unanswered in this project. There were also constraints and game mechanics identified for game designers to keep in mind when designing a game that relies on this type of analog input. The project also raised a number of questions and new design opportunities that were unable to be explored due to the limited scope of the project.

This paper explores the appeal of customizable user interfaces (UI) in video games, and the choices players make when this option is available to them. In the video game industry at present, players aren't given much choice in regards to the UI, even though it is usually a vital element that will support them throughout their whole experience. To determine the value of customizable UIs, players were provided a testing environment with tools that allowed them to modify their UI, and quantitative data was collected during this test. A qualitative study has also been conducted with a focus on the players attitude towards the subject. The results of the study show a high favor for UI customization among the players. It does however show that players are split on several aspects within the topic and further research is required. This can hopefully lead to developers adapting more uses of user experience (UX) and implementing UI customization within their games.

Tv-spel är något som en signifikant andel av populationen ägnar mycket tid åt. Idag är inte tv- spel enbart något som personer har som fritidssyssla, utan kan även spelas professionellt. Vissa aspekter av tv-spel har det forskats kring, men det tycks finnas en del outforskade områden. Syftet var att beskriva och diskutera interaktionsritualer i förhållande till ”video game literacy”, genom att undersöka hur individer beskriver att de har lärt sig att spela tv-spel samt genom att diskutera kring hur spelandet kan förstås som en social interaktionsritual. Metoden har varit av kvalitativ karaktär, med semi-strukturerade intervjuer som metod för empiriinsamling. Resultatet från studien visade att spelandet av tv-spel tillsammans med andra individer kan förstås som interaktionsritualer, om de innehåller vissa element. Vidare visade studien att individer kan utveckla sina kunskaper kring tv-spel genom att delta i denna typ av interaktioner, men även att det är möjligt för individer att utveckla sina kunskaper enskilt. / Video games are something a significant portion of the population spend a lot of time playing. Today, video games aren’t something people solely play in their spare time, but also something played professionally. Some aspects of video games have been researched, however a few unexplored areas still appear to exist. The aim of this study was to describe and discuss interaction rituals in relation to “video game literacy” through examining how individuals describe how they’ve learned to play video games, as well as through discussing how playing video games can be considered an interaction ritual. This essay has utilized a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews as the method for gathering empirical data. The results from this study suggest that the playing of video games together can be considered a form of interaction ritual, if the interaction contains certain elements. Furthermore, the study showed that it is possible for individuals to develop their understanding of video games through participating in these types of interactions, however it is also possible for individuals to increase their knowledge individually.

Cette thèse s'intéresse à l'analyse des données longitudinales, potentiellement grandes selon les trois axes suivants : nombre d'individus, fréquence d'observation et nombre de covariables. A partir de ces données, éventuellement censurées, nous considérons comme facteur d'étude le temps d'apparition d'un ou plusieurs évènements. Nous cherchons dans des classes de modèles à coefficients dépendant du temps à estimer l’intensité d’apparition des événements. Or les estimateurs actuels, ne permettent pas de traiter efficacement un grand nombre d’observations et/ou un grand nombre de covariables. Nous proposons un nouvel estimateur défini via la vraisemblance complète de Cox et une pénalisation permettant à la fois la sélection de variables et de forcer, quand c’est possible, les coefficients à être constants. Nous introduisons des algorithmes d'optimisation proximaux, permettant d'estimer les coefficients du modèle de manière efficace. L'implémentation de ces méthodes en C++ et dans le package R coxtv permet d'analyser des jeux de données de taille supérieure à la mémoire vive; via un streaming du flux de données et des méthodes d'apprentissage en ligne, telles que la descente de gradient stochastique proximale aux pas adaptatifs. Nous illustrons les performances du modèle sur des simulations en nous comparant aux méthodes existantes. Enfin, nous nous intéressons à la problématique du design des jeux vidéo. Nous montrons que l'application directe de ce modèle, sur les grands jeux de données dont dispose l'industrie du jeu vidéo, permet de mettre en évidence des leviers d'amélioration du design des jeux étudiés. Nous nous intéressons d'abord à l'analyse des composantes bas niveau, telles que les choix d'équipement fait par les joueurs au fils du temps et montrons que le modèle permet de quantifier l'effet de chacun de ces éléments de jeu, offrant ainsi aux designers des leviers d'amélioration direct du design. Enfin, nous montrons que le modèle permet de dégager des enseignements plus généraux sur le design tels que l'influence de la difficulté sur la motivation des joueurs. / This thesis focuses on longitudinal time to event data possibly large along the following tree axes : number of individuals, observation frequency and number of covariates. We introduce a penalised estimator based on Cox complete likelihood with data driven weights. We introduce proximal optimization algorithms to efficiently fit models coefficients. We have implemented thoses methods in C++ and in the R package coxtv to allow everyone to analyse data sets bigger than RAM; using data streaming and online learning algorithms such that proximal stochastic gradient descent with adaptive learning rates. We illustrate performances on simulations and benchmark with existing models. Finally, we investigate the issue of video game design. We show that using our model on large datasets available in video game industry allows us to bring to light ways of improving the design of studied games. First we have a look at low level covariates, such as equipment choices through time and show that this model allows us to quantify the effect of each game elements, giving to designers ways to improve the game design. Finally, we show that the model can be used to extract more general design recommendations such as dificulty influence on player motivations.

Recent academic work proposes that mainstream video games, which are not specifically designed for reflection or persuasion, can have a potential to implicitly encourage reflection on environmental issues and ecology. Some game developers have also echoed this view. Much of this work either does not include a player perspective in the reflection triggering, or mentions its possible inclusion in future studies. The aim of this thesis is to investigate this proposed potential of mainstream video games through the eyes of those who are to receive the environmental message of such videogames - the players. The present thesis builds on previous research in this area as well as on studies of the process of reflection in video games. In-depth interviews with 11 participants about 5 different mainstream videogames were conducted and their content and structure analysed for common themes. The selected videogames were: Red Dead Redemption II, Death Stranding, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Frostpunk and Cities: Skylines. The results point towards a high variability in the player's responses and attitudes towards the proposed climate reflection triggers in these video games. In addition, the analysis highlighted those factors which contribute to or interfere with the process of reflection, which is often accompanied by the...

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