Research into gameplay can contribute to more self-conscious approaches to design, allowing designers to create effective gameplay with less testing, or to target specific cognitive and emotional affects of gameplay for serious games applications. Self-conscious design includes theoretically motivated design of game systems to facilitate gameplay motivated by cognitive, scientific and/or rhetorical theories of game affect and functionality. Deepening the understanding of gameplay requires a consideration of basic epistemological questions about the nature of understanding. Understanding gameplay is a matter of generating mappings to explanatory frameworks in alternative interpretation paradigms. All games are cognitive skill learning environments, and an especially useful approach that may aid in the creation of more self-conscious game design practices is to conduct research into gameplay using theories and methods of cognitive science and cognitive psychology. On this basis, a framework is proposed based upon the integration of schema theory with attention theory. Cognitive task analysis provides a foundation for developing schema descriptions, which can then be elaborated according to more detailed models of cognitive and attentional processes. This approach provides a rich explanatory framework for the cognitive processes underlying gameplay. Playing a commercial PC or consol game is a highly visual activity regardless of whether the purpose is entertainment or situated learning. Information about the visual attention of the player is an important foundation for detailed schema modelling. A range of different eyetracking equipment has been used in many studies of visual cognition. However, very few studies describe dynamic stimuli involving the visual interaction of a user/ player with a moving 3D scene displayed on a computer screen. In order to address this, a software interface has been developed linking a Tobii™ eyetracking system with the HiFi game engine for use in automated logging of dynamic 3D objects of gaze attention. The system has been verified in a detailed study, confirming correct operation of the system as well as providing a characterisation of its spatial and temporal accuracy. The integrated Tobii/HiFi system has been validated in a study to test three hypotheses concerning visual attention in a first-person shooter (FPS) computer game. Firstly, the cuing effect of the passive gun graphic on visual attention was tested, with no evidence being found to support this hypothesis. A second hypothesis, that a player directs their gaze at a target opponent while shooting at them, was found to be supported in most cases, while in a small percentage of cases targeting is achieved in peripheral vision. Finally, in most cases, a player targets the nearest opponent. These results provide a baseline for further investigations in which the stimulus game design may be modified to provide more detailed models of the visual cognitive processes involved in gameplay and how they are involved in player decision-making.

The emphasis on making game development more accessible to novice users is becoming increasingly more common. Gone are the days when game development was a pursuit only available for those with a broad programming background or extensive technical skills. Today, game development has become much more approachable, with a wide variety of tools and resources targeted at both novice and experienced users. Despite being a focus point for many game engine companies, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to fully democratise game development. How could a tool for the adjustment of complex colliders’ shape in the Unity3D game engine targeted at game developers with little to no programming proficiency be designed and implemented? In this research study we delve into the process of creating a tool that enables adjustment of complex mesh colliders in Unity 3D's game engine, with an aim of making it accessible to users regardless of their previous experiences. A prototype of such a tool is developed using a design science strategic approach, which is later evaluated through interviews and thematic analysis. This study presents an exemplary approach to address the aforementioned task by providing the reader with an understanding of the tools used, how they were presented, and how the resulting prototype was perceived by its test users. The findings of this research study provides a framework for developing a tool that enables the adjustment of mesh colliders, while highlighting the significance of a comprehensive design process required when developing tools for novice users, and serves as a practical example of such a tool and how it could operate. Future research on the topic should focus on refining the design and features of the developed tool to further enhance its user friendliness.

在3D遊戲中，讓虛擬角色能夠在場景中自主的和使用者進行即時互動，一直是一個非常有挑戰性的問題。過去在此方面的相關研究雖然為數不少，但大多數的研究不是用效能來換取角色動作的規劃品質，就是屈就於效能而決定犧牲品質，能妥善的在兩者之間取得平衡的系統並不常見。本論文所提出的系統，便是一個能在兩者之間取得不錯平衡的角色動作規劃器。我們的規劃器會根據使用者的操作命令來預測角色未來可行的行動空間，並搭配時間預算的概念，將這些預測結果儲存在一種稱為可行動作樹的資料結構，從這些預測結果中搜尋出最符合使用者操作要求的角色動作。我們利用這個規劃器實作了兩種不同的應用，並測試了它們的效能。我們相信這個運動模組能實用在一般如遊戲的即時動畫環境中，提昇動畫角色的互動性與動畫品質。 / Allowing a virtual character to interact with the user autonomously in a 3D game has been a challenging problem for long. There has been much research in this direction but most of them have to trade interactivity of control with the quality of the generated motions or the other way. It is rare to see a system that can find a good balance between these two factors. In this thesis, we propose an interactive system consisting of a motion planner aiming to find a good balance between these two factors. Our planner attempts to predict the feasible motion space in the near future according to user commands. We use the concept of time-budgeted computing to maintain a data structure called Feasible Motion Tree representing the feasible motion space. This tree is maintained in an incremental fashion and is used to select the most appropriate motion clip when the current motion clip comes to the end. We have used this motion planning module to implement two different applications and verify its efficacy and efficiency. We believe that this motion planning module can be used in a real-time virtual environment, such as a game, for the improvement of the interactivity and the quality of motion control.

Title: Multi-platform Multiplayer RPG Game A multi-platform game, which would be able to run on various devices with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 systems, was created in this work. It was supposed to be a universal game client executable on desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets or mobile phones. The game was supposed to be role-playing game (RPG) with focus on turn-based action combat. In this work, a 3D scene renderer was written which supports rendering simple scenes with objects and animated characters. A cross-device communication library based on bluetooth technology was implemented in this project as well. This communication library allows two game clients running on two different types of devices to communicate with each other. Then a server-client communication library was created. This library was then used to implement a game server which offers online gaming feature.

Title: Multi-platform Multiplayer RPG Game A multi-platform game, which would be able to run on various devices with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 systems, was created in this work. It was supposed to be a universal game client executable on desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets or mobile phones. The game was supposed to be role-playing game (RPG) with focus on turn-based action combat. In this work, a 3D game engine was written which supports rendering simple scenes with objects and animated characters. The engine was developed using DirectX. The engine was written in .NET C# using SharpDX library. A cross-device communication framework based on bluetooth technology was implemented in this project as well. This communication framework allows two game clients running on two different devices to communicate with each other.

Focus of this master's thesis is a study of modern techniques in computer graphics and designing and developing custom application based on which could be developed new game engine. In this thesis are highlighted techniques for creating large terrains, advanced shadows, physically based sky rendering and drawing large set of objects. Finally, performance testing of these modules is performed.