The diploma work focuses on a topic which is often discussed in the Czech Republic as well as worldwide. The topic in question is the influence of computer games with elements of aggression and violence on aggressive behaviour of teenagers. The work consists of two parts - a theoretical and an empirical one. The theoretical part has four chapters dealing with theoretical knowledge on the subject. In the empirical part the qualitative research strategy was used - questionnaire method and semi structured interview. The research sample consisted of five pupils from the 9th grade of an elementary school. The main aim of the diploma work will be to establish the subjective perception of the influence of computer games with elements of aggression and violence on aggressive behaviour of pupils of older school age. The secondary aim will be establishing the attitudes of the pupils of older school age to violent and aggressive scenes in computer games and mapping the intrusion of computer games into everyday life of pupils from the point of view of computer games preferences and the time they spend playing computer games during the day. Qualitative research showed that four out of five respondents really subjectively feel that computer games with elements of violence and aggression strengthen their...

Titel: Ledarskap i den kreativa processen: En studie om dataspelsföretag Problem: I dagsläget finns det brister på studier som fokuserar på olika ledarskapsperspektivs påverkan på kreativitet inom arbetsgrupper. Hur ledarskap formas och ledarskapets roll i den kreativa processen saknas det information om, speciellt inom kreativt intensiva industrier. Stor del av tidigare forskning fokuserar på länder som USA och Japan, men inte Sverige. Dataspelsindustrin är en snabbföränderlig industri, därmed finns det flera utmaningar och affärsmöjligheter som organisationer möjligtvis saknar kunskap om. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att få en förståelse för hur ledarskapet ser ut i den kreativa processen i dataspelsföretag. Samtidigt vill vi bidra med kunskap och förståelse om ledarskapets inflytande på den kreativa processen. Metod: Undersökningen utgick från samhällsvetenskapligt tolkningsperspektiv med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi.  Fenomenologisk ansats har använts för att fånga intervjupersonernas upplevelser av ledarskapet i den kreativa processen i dataspelsindustrin med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Forskningsansatsen var abduktiv då forskarna pendlade konstant mellan data och kända teorier vid sökandet efter de mest sannolika förklaringarna. Vid bearbetning av data användes en fenomenografisk dataanalysmodell. Slutsats: Olika ledarskapsperspektiv fungerar olika under olika omständigheter. Enligt den teoretiska referensramen utesluter inte en ledarskapsteori nödvändigtvis en annan utan aspekter av olika ledarskapsteorier går att kombinera. Eftersom att det finns många olika typer av dataspelsföretag är det viktigt att förstå den egna organisationen och vara öppen för att plocka aspekter från olika ledarskapsteorier och skräddarsy ett ledarskapsperspektiv som passar organisationens kontext. / Title: Leadership in the creative process: A study about small computer game companies. Problem: Currently there is a lack of studies that focus on different leadership perspectives effect on creativity within groups. There is a lack of information about how leadership shapes and the leadership’s role in the creative process, especially in creative intensive industries. A big part of previous research focuses on countries like USA and Japan, but not Sweden. The computer game industry is a fast changing industry, therefore there are many challenges and business opportunities that organizations might lack knowledge about. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to gain an understanding for what leadership in the creative process in small computer game companies look like. At the same time we want contribute knowledge and understanding about the leadership's influence on the creative process. Method: The study is based on a interpretive social science perspective with a qualitative research strategy. A phenomenological approach has been used to capture the respondent's’ experience of leadership in the creative process in the computer game industry with the help of semi structured interviews. The research approach was abductive due to the researchers constantly going between data and known theories when searching after the most probable explanations. During processing of data a phenomenographic data analysis model was used. Conclusion: Different leadership perspectives work differently under different circumstances. According to the theoretical framework leadership theories does not necessarily exclude one from another, rather aspects from different leadership theories are combinable. Since there are many kinds of computer game companies it is imperative to understand one’s own organization and to be open to pick aspects from different leadership theories to tailor a leadership perspective that fits the organization's context.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the function and development of non-player characters (NPC) in the TV/computer game Dragon Age: Origins. The NPCs are analysed in order to see if their development is affected by the player character’s (PC) background and interactions. The game’s ethics is also investigated by studying how the NPCs treat the PC and what significance they give to his background and actions. The results show that the NPCs are affected by the PC’s interactions, and furthermore, that they are round characters, which is unusual in TV/computer games. The NPC Alistair and the PC are vital for the game’s story, while the NPCs Leliana and Morrigan have a moral and psychological function. The NPCs are moral indicators and by either opposing or accepting the PC’s actions they show their own personality. The game’s norm is created by the player/PC. Also, the game sheds light on the player’s moral actions and gives the player a chance to reflect over his/her choices and the consequences thereof. The results give way to a discussion on how games like Dragon Age: Origins can be used in learning. Through interactions and by letting the player project his/her own identity onto the PC, TV/computer games can show the consequences of actions. Since the player is not only told the story, but ‘lives’ it, the moral choices faced in the game make the player practice being responsible and facing moral dilemmas as if in real life, hence enriched by new experiences.

This thesis deals with procedural generation techniques and its use in the creation of voxel models. The techniques that have been used are Perlin Noise, Voronoi diagram, L-systems etc. This knowledge is then used to create a world generator for computer game with open world. This game provides players with the ability to modify this world and use its creativity, for example, in building construction. The game, however, will not give to the player all options for free, but for example for build, he or she will first have to find and mine the material. The game has been written in programming language C++ with the use of libraries Boost, SDL and OpenGL.

The aim of the dissertation is to create a prototype of an educational game which should help students with the choice of future their studies. To this end, the game introduces the topic of logic systems in a non-threating interactive way with clear illustrative examples. The theoretical part of the work deals with the background knowledge necessary in order to design the game. It explains logic systems, gates, flip-flop circuits, and explores various aspects of game genres with primary focus on puzzle games and their history. In addition, the dissertation presents some of the issues related to cross-platform development of games for both mobile and computer platforms, and provides brief descriptions of several popular cross-platform libraries. Lastly, the work introduces and compares several chosen applications created as a supplementary material for teaching logic system.

Práce rozebírá projekt, který je základem znovupoužiteného enginu počítačové hry - tahové strategie. Celkovým cílem by mělo být vytvoření komerční série počítačových her z vojenského prostředí. Text technické zprávy rozebírá zadání projektu a rozšiřuje jeho myšlenky o nezbytné vlastnosti. Dále popisuje vytvoření samotného zdrojového kódu a jeho použití. Zmiňuje se o stávajícím stavu projektu a krocích, které je potřeba podniknout k jeho dokončení. Zpráva je v anglickém jazyce.

1 Abstract This master's thesis focuses on the influence of computer games with historical themes on the interest in contemporary history and history in general. It explains basic concepts such as game, digital media, computer game and educational game and introduces the main aspects of computer games. It also focuses on their benefits in education, but also draws attention to possible pitfalls of playing computer games and their impact on health and development of a young individual. Furthermore, the thesis describes game genres in which the most played games with historical themes can be found and introduces the game Attentat 1942. The next part of the thesis examines whether and how computer games with historical themes affect the interest in contemporary and general history through empirical research based on a questionnaire survey of 150 respondents aged 15-30. The results show that playing computer games with historical themes has an impact on young people's interest in contemporary and general history, and this influence is positive. Furthermore, the results show that the most popular game genres for games with historical themes are strategies, RPGs (role-playing games) and action games, and that players pay attention mostly to the story, gameplay and graphics in these games. The results also show...

No description available.

No description available.

Lean software development is an approach that focuses on identifying and removing unnecessary processes that occur within a pipeline that add no value to the end product. It adapts ideas from lean manufacturing and the Toyota production system for use within the software space, and is ideal for streamlining pipelines. In this paper, the development pipeline of a two-dimensional in-game map is analyzed through the lens of the first principle of lean software development, ’eliminate waste’. Lean waste is identified and measured in order to identify problem areas within the pipeline that can be improved upon in order to streamline the pipeline and highlight issues. Additionally, value stream mapping is used to aid in the visualization of the pipeline and waste identification. The integration of in-game maps within video games serves as an integral component for navigation and gameplay enhancement, assisting the player with identifying their location and marking crucial locations. As the map functions as a relatively contained element of the gameplay, the development of video game maps parallels a small-scale version of the overall game development pipeline. The map development pipeline can be summarized with the following seven subtasks; add features to the prototype tool, export heightmap and watermask, generate map using the prototype tool, render map in game, connect map to UI, export road information, and add roads to map. Throughout development, three types of lean waste were identified: waiting, defects, and motion. Of these, defects proved to be the most significant, accounting for 48% of development time, while motion and waiting consumed 9% and 7% of pipeline time, respectively. The suggested solutions to decrease waste in this pipeline involve testing and improving important tools frequently, writing better and more coherent documentations, as well as removing documents of poor quality. / Lean software development är en metod som fokuserar på att identifiera och ta bort onödiga processer som sker inom en pipeline som inte tillför något värde till slutprodukten. Metoden anpassar ideer från lean manufacturing och Toyotas produktionssystem för användning inom mjukvaruområdet och är idealisk för att effektivisera pipelines. I detta arbete undersöks utvecklingsprocessen av en tvådimensionell karta i ett datorspel och analyseras baserat på den första principen av lean software development, ‘eliminera avfall’, och används för att effektivisera processen. Value stream mapping används för att visualisera utvecklingsprocessen och ta fram problem som kan uppstå. Integrationen av kartor inom datorspel utgör en väsentlig komponent för navigation och en bättre spelupplevelse, vilket hjälper spelaren att identifiera sin position och markera viktiga platser. Då kartan fungerar som ett relativt avgränsat element av spelupplevelsen, betyder det att utvecklingen av spelkartan kan ses som en parallell av en mindre skala till hela spelets utvecklingsprocess. Utvecklingsprocessen för kartan kan sammanfattas med dess sju deluppgifter; lägg till funktioner i prototyp verktyget, exportera höjd- och vattenkartan, generera kartan med prototyp verktyget, rendera kartan i spelet, anslut kartan till användargränssnittet, exportera väginformation, och lägg till vägar på kartan. Under utvecklingen identifierades tre typer av lean avfall: väntetid, defekter och rörelse. Av dessa visade det sig att defekter tog upp mest tid, med 48% av utvecklingstiden, medan rörelse och väntetid krävde 9% respektive 7% av utvecklingstiden. De föreslagna lösningarna för att minska på avfall i denna pipeline innefattar att testa och förbättra viktiga verktyg frekvent, skriva bättre och mer sammanhängande dokumentation, samt att ta bort dokument av dålig kvalitet.