Background: A computer game based Telerehabilitation platform has been developed to provide a seamless system for hand exercise and assessment in home settings for people with arthritis. The exercise program involves task-oriented training of real life object manipulation tasks performed with computer gaming. The platform will also be integrated with a telemonitoring, computer game based hand function assessment application. Objectives: 1) To determine test-retest reliability and convergent validity of the assessment application protocol in people with rheumatoid arthritis or hand osteoarthritis, 2) To conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial for assessing the feasibility, and therapeutic effects of the task-oriented training compared to conventional hand exercises, and 3) To qualitatively evaluate participants’ experiences on their respective exercise programs. Methods: Performance during three different object manipulation tasks was evaluated by the assessment application protocol on 40 people with arthritis. The performance measures were correlated with other common hand function measures. A six-week pilot randomized trial was conducted on 16 individuals with arthritis. The Arthritis Hand Function Test (AHFT), the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire, exercise compliance and task performance during three object manipulation tasks were the clinical outcomes. Focus group interviews were conducted on seven participants who had before received their home exercise programs. Results: The protocol demonstrated moderate to high test-retest reliability (ICCs between 0.5-0.84) of performance measures. Spearman correlation coefficients (rho) between task performance measures and other measures of hand function were low to moderate (0.4 < rho < 0.5 to 0.7). The pilot trial was not successful in terms of participant recruitment but demonstrated feasibility of study procedures, resources, and management. Except for two dexterity sub-scales of the AHFT, there were no significant differences in other clinical measures. Exercise compliance was >85% in both groups. The qualitative study provided initial evidence on the appropriateness, acceptance, perceived benefits, and a few practical difficulties in performing each exercise program. Conclusions: The hand function assessment application warrants validation in a variety of object manipulation tasks and in different patient populations. In order to proceed to a full-fledged trial, additional recruitment strategies, and revisions in the inclusion criteria must be considered. / February 2015

<p>Previous research has shown that student-teacher interaction is very important in motivating students to learn a second language. However, it is unclear whether facial expression, which is one of the most important portions of interaction, affects in-game language learning motivation or not. The purpose of this study is to find out the evidence demonstrating the facial expressions of the other party, in this case, virtual characters in game, will or will not influence the learning motivation <a>of Japanese L2 students</a>. The researchers of this study developed four versions of a 3D animated Japanese role-playing game. Each version of the game represents one facial expression that is neutral, happy, sad or angry. The entire research consists of two experiments: a validation study and a motivation study. After validating all the facial expressions of five main characters in the game, <a>eighty-four college students from 200/300 level Japanese courses </a>joined in the motivation study voluntarily. They played a version of the game assigned randomly to them and then did a post-questionnaire. Conclusions were drawn based on the survey results. The findings of this research suggested that virtual characters’ facial expressions in game had no significant effect on participants’ <b>learning motivation</b>. However, significance was found in <b>years of learning Japanese</b> and <b>gender</b>. Meanwhile, it was found <b>facial expression</b> and <b>years of learning Japanese</b> had an interactive effect on the variable <b>immersion into game.</b> </p>

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation investigates game design elements and their impact on player experience, intrinsic motivation, and learning outcomes. The research encompasses three projects, each delving into essential aspects of educational game design and their impact on student learning. The first project addresses a design gap by creating an educational game, exam- ining its effect on motivation and learning outcomes. The second project investigates player agency’s role in games and its influence on experience and outcomes. Two prototypes are designed that differ in the level of player agency afforded to the students. The study analyzes how this experimental manipulation affects player experience, intrinsic motivation, and learning outcomes. The third project analyzes the relationship between the learning inventory and the puzzle environment. More specifically, I will evaluate why students faced challenges when answering questions that focused on predicting the output and it’s connection with the learning environment. The overall focus of my dissertation is player experience, intrinsic motivation (to learn), and learning outcomes, which are examined through qualitative and quantitative research methods.</p>

With the interactivity and immersion of players into video games, rising development costs, and heightened expectations from AAA developers video games need to make sure they hit their target market more than ever. This is something that is less extreme in the educational game development space; but ultimately true with limited grant funding, limited development time within a student developer’s schedule, and how rapidly a recently leased student content creator will need to learn the space and needs of the client. When a student is brought on late into a development cycle, it can become troublesome when they are required to meet new developing features on a changing project. This paper looks over how one team approached this issue, with a focus on meeting the needs of a group of American high school teachers. Within this paper, the focus is how they tackled the issue, and how the teachers reacted to the end prototype, with some insight into the older prototypes of the project. Throughout it they had reinforced the ideas that communication, data validity, and set contract goals are important identifiers for project success. Teachers looking at video games care more about the data being valid and clearly communicated more than if a game is fun or laden with features and mini-games.

Achieving a state of balance is essential when developing a video game (Schell, 2019, “Game Mechanics Must Be in Balance,” para. 1). Despite this, game balancing is frequently overlooked in game development curricula (Schreiber, 2016, 00:30). This research describes the development and pilot study of a framework that junior game designers can utilize to gain valuable skills in the area of game balance. The framework produced by this research provides users with the ability to tune weapon parameters and see the effects these changes have on a first-person shooter deathmatch game in real time. Participants in the study utilized the framework to achieve three pacing and balance goals. Data regarding the weapon parameters selected by participants and information about the participants’ usage of the framework is described in detail. This study serves as the groundwork for future research focused on finding a method for teaching junior game designers about game balance.

<p>This thesis project addresses the need for an interactive, real-time water animation tech-<br> nique that can showcase visually convincing effects such as splashes and breaking waves while<br> being computationally inexpensive. Our method couples SPH and wave equations in a one-<br> way manner to simulate the behavior of water in real-time, leveraging OpenGL’s Compute<br> Shaders for interactive performance and a novel Uniform Grid implementation. Through a<br> review of related literature on real-time simulation methods of fluids, and water animation,<br> this thesis presents a feasible algorithm, animations to showcase interesting water effects,<br> and a comparison of computational costs between SPH, wave equations, and the coupled<br> approach. The program renders a water body with a planar surface and discrete particles.<br> This project aims to provide a solution that can meet the needs of various water animation<br> use-cases, such as games, and movies, by offering a computationally efficient technique that<br> can animate water to behave plausibly and showcase essential effects in real-time.</p>

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Problem Det föreligger en risk att negativa effekter av digitala spel överexponerats i tidigare forskning genom att fokus riktats mot problem i större grad än möjligheter. Enligt rapporter och studier kan mycket av denna tidigare forskning inte heller anses vila på korrekt vetenskaplig grund. Detta riskerar att prägla och påverka professionellas bemötande av ungdomar med riskbeteende kring digitala spel på ett felaktigt sätt. Denna studie kartlägger eventuella samband mellan digitala spel, individens psykiska hälsa och deras relationer till familj, vänner och omgivning. Förhoppningen är att kunna bidra med värdefull kunskap till professionella vilket möjligen kan hjälpa dem i deras bemötande av ungdomar med ett sådant riskbeteende. Metod Genom en kvantitativ enkätstudie med totalt 108 respondenter med spelintresse har nödvändig data insamlats kring digitala spel, deras psykiska hälsa och sociala relationer till familj, vänner och omgivning. Resultat Samband har påträffats mellan omfattningen av spelande och faktorerna socialt spelande, flykt och krav/status. Det är möjligt att det föreligger samband mellan nyttjandet av digitala spel och dennes psykiska hälsa, sociala omgivning och miljö präglad av negativ karaktär. Slutsats  Om det föreligger ett riskbeteende är det av vikt för professionella att intressera sig för individens spelmönster för att förstå grunden till problemet. Ytterligare studie krävs dock för att kunna konstatera eventuell kausalitet. / Problem There’s a risk that by focusing on problems rather than opportunities the negative effects of digital gaming has been over exposed in previous research. And according to reports and studies this research can’t be considered to rest on proper scientific basis. This can improperly characterize and influence the professionals' treatment of adolescents with risky behavior around digital games. This study aims to identify possible connections between digital gaming, the individual's mental health and their relationships to family, friends and surroundings. The hope is to be able to contribute with valuable knowledge to the professionals that possibly will them in their treatment of young people with such risky behavior. Method Through a quantitative survey with a total of 108 respondents with gaming interest, necessary data has been collected about digital games, mental health factors and relationships with family, friends and surroundings. Result Correlations was found between the extent of gaming and the factors of social gaming, escape and demands/status. In addition to their reciprocal relationship these factors have also shown significant parallels to the respondents' mental health and relationships with parents, friends and surroundings. Conclusion If there is a risk behaviour it is important for professionals to be interested in the individuals’ gaming pattern to understand the basis of the problem, as other factors like social surroundings and environment of negative character might have an influence on this pattern.

<p>Terrain generation is a convoluted and a popular topic in the VFX industry. Whether you are part of the film/TV or gaming industry, a terrain, is a highly nuanced feature that is usually present. Regardless of walking on a desert like terrain in the film, Blade Runner 2049 or fighting on different planets like in Avatar, 3D terrains is a major part of any digital media. The purpose of this thesis is about developing a workflow for large-scale terrains using complex data sets and utilizing this workflow to maintain a balance between the procedural content and the artistic input made especially for smaller companies which cannot afford an enhanced pipeline to deal with major technical complications. The workflow consists of two major elements, development of the tool used to optimize the workflow and the recording and maintaining of the efficiency in comparison to the older workflow. </p> <p> </p> <p> My research findings indicate that despite the increase in overall computational abilities, one of the many issues that are still present is generating a highly advanced terrain with the added benefits of the artists and users’ creative variations. Reducing the overall time to simulate and compute a highly realistic and detailed terrain is the main goal, thus this thesis will present a method to overcome the speed deficiency while keeping the details of the terrain present.</p>

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