[pt] O autismo é um transtorno global do desenvolvimento infantil que afeta a capacidade de comunicação do indivíduo, de estabelecer relacionamentos e de responder apropriadamente ao ambiente. A Ciência da Computação e, em particular, a área de Interação Humano-Computador (IHC) podem auxiliar na construção de ferramentas com alta qualidade de uso capazes de ajudar no desenvolvimento de crianças com autismo. Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o impacto de um programa de computador desenvolvido exclusivamente para ajudar crianças com autismo na aquisição de vocabulário. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que as crianças foram capazes de aprender novas palavras, retendo e generalizando o conhecimento. / [en] Autism is a global development disorder that affects children s ability to communicate, to establish relationships and to respond appropriately to the environment. Within Computer Science, the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can assist in building high quality tools that can help the development of children with autism. This work aims to analyze the impact of a computer game developed exclusively to help children with autism in vocabulary acquisition. The results obtained show that children were able to effectively learn new words. Evidence of generalization and retention has been shown.

The main objective of the thesis is to describe situation on the current computer games market in Czech Republic and with use of own market research to reveal behavior, usage and preferences of consumers on this market. Based on this data significant market segments should be revealed and appropriate conclusions and recommendations useful for marketing communication should be given for them. Own market research is of quantitative character and is realized in form of Internet questionnaire. Data obtained from this questionnaire are analyzed with help of pivot tables in MS Excel. IBM SPSS Statistics 20 is used for uncovering market segments and expansion of their profiles. The output of the thesis is detection of 5 major market segments and formulation of basic recommendations on marketing mix level for each market segment.

The recent transformation of consumer graphics (CG) cards into powerful 3D rendering processors is due in large measure to the success of game developers in delivering mass market entertainment software that feature highly immersive and captivating virtual environments. Despite this success, 3D CG application development is becoming increasingly handicapped by the inability of traditional content creation methods to keep up with the demand for content. The term content is used here to refer to any data operated on by application code that is meant for viewing, including 3D models, textures, animation sequences and maps or other data-intensive descriptions of virtual environments. Traditionally, content has been handcrafted by humans. A serious problem facing the interactive graphics software development community is how to increase the rate at which content can be produced to keep up with the increasingly rapid pace at which software for interactive applications can now be developed. Research addressing this problem centers around procedural content creation systems. By moving away from purely human content creation toward systems in which humans play a substantially less time-intensive but no less creative part in the process, procedural content creation opens new doors. From a qualitative standpoint, these types of systems will not rely less on human intervention but rather more since they will depend heavily on direction from a human in order to synthesize the desired content. This research draws heavily from the entertainment software domain but the research is broadly relevant to 3D graphics applications in general.

This thesis explores the balance between visual quality and the performance of a 3D object for computer games. Additionally, it aims to help new 3D artists to create assets that are both visually adequate and optimized for real-time rendering. It further investigates the differences in the judgement of the visual quality of thosethat know computer graphics, and thosenot familiar with it. Many explanations of 3D art optimization are often highly technical and challenging for graphic artists to grasp. Additionally, they regularly neglect the effects of optimization to the visual quality of the assets. By testing several 3D assets to measure their render time while using a survey to gather their visual assessments, it was discovered that 3D game art is very contextual. No definite or straightforward way was identified to find the balance between art quality and performance universally. Neither when it comes to performance nor visuals. However, some interesting findings regarding the judgment of visual quality were observed and presented. / Den här uppsatsen utforskar balansen mellan visuell kvalitéoch prestanda i 3D modeller för spel. Vidare eftersträvar den att utgöra ett stöd för nya 3D-modelleingskonstnärer för att skapa modeller som är både visuellt adekvata och optimerade för att renderas i realtid. Dessutom undersöks skillnaden mellan omdömet av den visuella kvalitén mellan de som är bekanta med 3D datorgrafik och de som inte är det. Många förklaringar gällande optimering av 3D grafik är högst tekniska och utgör en utmaning för grafiker att förståsig på och försummar dessutom ofta effekten av hur optimering påverkar resultatet rent visuallet. Genom att testa ett flertal 3D modeller, mäta tiden det tar för dem att renderas, samt omdömen gällande visuella intryck, drogs slutsatsen att bedömning av 3D modellering för spel är väldigt kontextuell. Inget definitivt och enkelt sätt att hitta balansen mellan visuella kvalitén upptäcktes. Varken gällande prestanda eller visuell kvalité. Däremot gjordes några intressanta upptäckter angående bedömningen av den visuella kvalitén som observerades och presenterades.

This project deals with usage of programming languages and compilers in computer games. Purpose of this project is to give young people motivation for programming, which isn't always done by usual work in Pascal at high school. This idea was applied on a developed computer game with has a few integrated languages which can be used for creation of the game's content (adventures, campaigns and objects in them). This computer game was based on a RPG desk game Dragon's Lair (a Czech equivalent of D&D) from ALTAR(TM) publishing company.

The goal of this thesis is to describe the issue of computer game creation and to develop a race game for people connected to the Virtual World using Unity 3D game engine. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to the history of video games, platforms and to describing of development processes and development tools. The next part is about Unity 3D game engine, which was used for creating the game. The resulting application is described in the last part.

Playing computer games in English affects one’s vocabulary size, and thus this project’s aim was to examine how the strategy and turn-based computer game Rebuild 2 can affect adult learners’ vocabulary acquisition according to their perceptions. This project also examined what effects note-taking has on vocabulary learning while playing the game. Two studies were conducted with university students with B1 to C2 level of English where one group took notes and the other group did not. The participants did a vocabulary test of 20 words from the game before playing and after playing the game. Then a retention-test was done one week later. They were tasked to explain and to use the words in sentences. The results indicated that the game helped the participants learn new words. On the other hand, it also caused confusion and words that were once explained correctly were incorrectly explained. Moreover, this project showed that there is a difference in vocabulary acquisition between taking notes and taking no notes. However, the questionnaires revealed that the difference is caused by how the participants perceive the game. Namely that the participants with a positive view on the game learnt more words than the participants with a negative view on the game.

Analysens syfte var att presentera om ett datorspel kan betraktas som en berättande text, hur ett datorspel skiljer sig från andra berättande texter, samt hur datorspelet The Witcher 2: Assassins of kings (2011) kan användas som en berättande text i gymnasieämnet svenska. Analysarbetet genomfördes genom att spela datorspelet, skriva loggbok och spela in spel-tillfällena. För att klargöra om datorspelet kan betraktas som en berättande text använde jag mig av forskning som definierar en berättande text. Sedan jämförde jag datorspelets berättelse mot forsknings-resultaten. Gällande användningen i gymnasieämnet svenska reflekterade jag över Skol-verkets formuleringar i det centrala innehållet för kurserna. Resultatet som jag kunde utläsa var att datorspel kan betraktas som berättande text och är möjliga att använda i gymnasieämnet svenska. Beträffande skillnaderna från andra berättande texter är ett The Witcher 2 ett icke-linjärt datorspel med interaktiva inslag, vilket innebär att berättelsen kräver större engagemang från en spelare i jämförelse med en läsare.

With the success of technology, computers and digital games have become a new, more advanced, medium for storytelling. What sets digital games apart from more traditional forms is that the player must engage and interact with a game world and the characters on a whole new level. Immersion is a term that is described as the experience of feeling deeply engaged within another reality. So how does a player become immersed in the game? In order to enable the necessary interactions between the player and the game, a user interface is required. User interface elements can be designed in a variety of ways. Some elements are part of the game’s geometric world and its narrative, so-called diegetic elements. Then there is the opposite, nondiegetic elements, which have no connection to the game story at all and only fulfill the purpose of conveying information to the player. The aim of this thesis was to investigate how the user interface affects the players’ immersion. The study consisted of a theoretical literary section and two empirical investigations in the field of user tests and online surveys. What was investigated in this thesis was how non-diegetic user interface elements affect immersion as well as whether immersion increases by integrating the user interface into the gaming world. Determining a statistical significance difference in immersion seems difficult. But with the help of interviews and online surveys, the player’s preferences have shown that minimizing non-diegetic elements can increase immersion and that integrating the user interface into the game world is a very good and preferred solution for conveying the necessary information to the player. However, the data collected indicate that failure to convey the necessary information can lead to the opposite, reduced immersion.

The diploma thesis deals with the subject of video games heroes. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the image of a video game hero and the components of which this image consists. Another focus of this thesis is to compare the images of video game heroes of the RPG (role-playing game) genre with the FPS (first person shooter) genre and to find out which aspects the images have in common and which are different. Content analysis of the games is applied in this thesis, based on predefined criteria and field notes gathered during playing top 100 rated games (50 games of the RPG genre and 50 games of the FPS genre) by Metacritic for 30 minutes each. The selection of the research sample is limited by the main character of the games; analysed games are such in which the hero is determined by the game and the player can't adjust him in any way, for example by choosing the character's gender, their physical predispositions and their occupation. The analysis of the games proved that the main hero was mostly an adult Caucasian human male. This characteristic was registered in the FPS genre more frequently.