The purpose of this thesis is to find out how interactive level design directly impactsplayers’ experience of immersion. This was done by researching different perspectives andtheories for immersion and interactivity while using Genshin Impact as an example. For thisstudy, interactive level design means a piece of environment that reacts to a player’s input.This research is important as there is a gap in the research, as while there are existing theoriesfor interactivity, immersion, and level design independently, there is little existing researchlinking them together. Additionally, this thesis is important for future level design, as it willaid in making more interactive and immersive levels for games. The method of this thesisrelied on answers from 2 qualitative and quantitative surveys and 5 semi-structuredinterviews. The data gathered from the surveys and interviews were then separately analyzed.The results indicate that interactive level design indeed has an influence that heightensplayers’ experience of immersion.

Denna studie undersöker hybrida brädspel, en relativt ny genre av spel som blivit alltmer populär under senare år. En utmaning med att designa engagerande hybridspel är att kombinera analoga och digitala element på ett sätt som förbättrar spelupplevelsen. Studien syfte har varit att undersöka vilka designmönster som återfinns i hybrida brädspel och hur dessa påverkar spelarnas upplevelse av spelet. Med en fallstudie som forskningsstrategi genomfördes tre olika spelsessioner där observation användes för att ta fram data om spelupplevelse i relation till designmönster. Efter varje avslutad spelsession genomfördes semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer med deltagarna där data från observationerna använts som underlag. Data som erhållits användes sedan i en tematisk analys för att ta fram teman och mönster gällande designmönster samt spelarnas upplevelser av dessa. Mönstren som återfanns var test-wizard, förenklande misslyckanden, automatiserad fas-hantering, periodic events, tidsreglerad progression, monster-generering, save and quit, onboarding-wizard, pussel och curiosity priming. Funna mönstren påverkade deltagarnas upplevelse gällande spelelement såsom spelarnas engagemang i spelet, svårighetsgrad, slumpmässighet med dess oförutsägbarhet, inlärningsförmåga, stimulans till nyfikenhet, progression och interaktion mellan spelare. Studien har gett ytterligare data och information om hur designers i framtiden kan förhålla sig till designmönster inom genren hybrida brädspel under utvecklingen av kommande spel. / This study investigates hybrid board games, a relatively new genre of games that has become increasingly popular in recent years. One challenge in designing engaging hybrid games is to successfully combine analogue and digital elements in a way that enhances the gaming experience. The study aims to examine the design patterns found in hybrid board games and how they affect players' experience of the game. Using a case study as a research strategy, three different game sessions were conducted where observation was used to collect data on player experience in relation to design patterns. After each completed game session, semi-structured group interviews were conducted with the players where the observation data was used as a basis. The data obtained was then used in a thematic analysis to identify themes and patterns related to design patterns and players' experiences of them. Patterns found were test wizard, simplifying failures, automatised phase management, periodic events, time regulated progression, monster generation, save and quit, onboarding wizard, puzzle and curiosity priming. Patterns found influenced participant experience regarding difficulty, ability to learn, player engagement, randomness with its unpredictability, stimulation of curiosity, progression and interaction between players. The study has provided additional data and information about how designers in the future can relate to design patterns within the hybrid board game genre during the development of future games.

The primary focus of this thesis is the study of visual development for worldbuilding, starting with creative writing and documentation and translating the written content into visual concepts in both 2D and 3D. This project includes an original narrative, setting, and characters and explores aspects of the visual development pipeline. The content below contains work in visual research, 2D character design, 3D character sculpting, 3D printing and assembly, hard-surface modeling, matte-painting, illustration, compositing, and heavy creative writing.

Bootstrap is a computer-programming curriculum that teaches students to program video games using Racket, a functional programming language based on algebraic syntax. This study investigated the relationship between learning to program video games from a Bootstrap course and the resulting effect on students' understanding of algebra. Courses in three different schools, lasting about six weeks each, were studied. Control and treatment groups were given a pre and post algebra assessment. A qualitative component consisting of observations and interviews was also used to further triangulate findings. Statistical analysis revealed that students who completed the Bootstrap course gained a significantly better understanding of variables and a suggestive improvement in understanding functions. In the assessments, students failed to demonstrate a transfer of the advanced concepts of function composition and piecewise functions from programming to algebraic notation. Interviews with students demonstrated that with coaching, students were able to relate functions written in Racket to functions written in algebraic notation, but were not yet able to transfer their experience of function composition from programming to algebra.

Game development involves both traditional software activities combined with creative work. As a result, game design practices are characterized by an extensive process of iterative development and evaluation, where prototyping is a major component to test and evaluate the player experience. Content creation for the virtual world the players inhabit is one of the most time-consuming aspects of production. This experimental research study focuses on analyzing and formulating challenges and desired properties in a prototyping tool based on Procedural Content Generation to assist game designers in their early ideation process. To investigate this, a proof of concept was iteratively developed based on information gathered from interviews and evaluations with world designers during a conceptual and design study. The final user study assessed the tool’s functionalities and indicated its potential utility in enhancing the designers’ content exploration and risk management during pre-production activities. Key guidelines for the tool’s architecture can be distilled into: (1) A modular design approach supports balance between content controllability and creativity. (2) Design levels and feature representation should combine and range between Micro (specific) to Macro (high-level, abstract). The result revealed challenges in combining exploration of the design space with optimization and refinement of content. However, the thesis specifically concentrated on one specific type of content - city generation, to represent world design content generation. To fully understand the generalizable aspects different types of game content would need to be covered in further research. / Spelutveckling består av både traditionell programutveckling i kombination med kreativt arbete. Detta resulterar i att speldesign kännetecknas av en omfattande process av iterativ utveckling, där prototyper är en viktig komponent för att kunna testa och utvärdera spelupplevelsen. En av de mest tidskrävande aspekterna i produktionen är skapandet av innehåll till spelets virtuella värld. Denna experimentella forskningsstudie har fokuserat på att analysera och identifiera utmaningar och användbara egenskaper i ett prototypverktyg baserat på Procedurell Generering. Verktyget syftar till att assistera spelvärlds designers i deras initiala kreativa process för att generera, utveckla och kommunicera idéer. För att undersöka detta utvecklades en proof of concept iterativt baserat på den information som samlats in från intervjuer och utvärderingar med speldesigners, under en konceptuell och design fokuserad fas. Den slutliga användarstudien utvärderade verktygets funktionaliteter och användbarhet. Resultatet indikerade att ett prototypverktyg baserat på Procedurell Generering potentiellt kan förbättra både utforskandet av spelinnehåll och riskhantering. De viktigaste riktlinjerna för verktygets arkitektur kan sammanfattas av: (1) Användandet av moduler i designen stöder balansen mellan kontroll och kreativitet vid skapandet av innehåll. (2) Funktioner i verktyget gynnas av att kombinera och variera mellan Mikro (specifik representation) till Makro (abstrakt, övergripande representation) designnivåer. Studien identifierade ett antal utmaningar med att både kunna utforska material och optimera det. Viktigt att uppmärksamma är att denna studie enbart koncentrerade sig på en specifik typ av innehåll – stadsgenerering, vars syfte var att fungera som en representation av innehållsgenerering i spelvärldsdesign. För att mer omfattande kunna identifiera de generaliserbara aspekterna skulle flera olika typer av spelinnehåll behöva testas i ytterligare forskning

How can we as architects interact with external practices, such as video games? Are there relevant aspects to be found, and what are the ways in which they could be approached? This project grounds itself in three different personal interests; architecture, digital design tools and video games, or more specifically: ”What kind of architectural expressions and spaces could be created if we design in the borderland between the real and the virtual game?” This is an experimental project that approaches a few aspects of video game design, as well as potential qualities of virtual worlds. It concerns itself with image based digital massing, level design as basis for program or composition on site, as well as being on the border between the real and the virtual. The result of the investigations is a playful collection of objects, arranged according to a loose, narrative sequence idea. The scene is geographically tied to a real location, but floats in a no-man’s-land between reality and game. In its current state, it is not a proposal for the actual, real world site, and at the same time it is not quite a game either. There is an ambivalence to the scene being at the pivot point of these two definitions. The objects have a structural and aesthetic nature that touches on low-polygon shapes as expression, using images for generating a grid-surface based outcome and exploring a transitioning between reality and virtuality through architectural representation.

Culling out non-visible portions of 3D scenes is important for rendering large complex worlds at an interactive frame rate. Past 3D engines used static prebaked visibility data which was generated using complex algorithms. Hardware Occlusion Queries are a modern feature that allows engines to determine if objects are invisible on the fly. This allows for fully dynamic destructible and editable environments as opposed to static prebaked environments of the past. This paper presents an algorithm that uses Hardware Occlusion Queries to cull fully dynamic scenes in real-time. This algorithm is relatively simple in comparison to other real-time occlusion culling techniques, making it possible for the average developer to render large detailed scenes. It also requires very little work from the artists who design the scenes since no portals, occluders, or other special objects need to be used.

The introduction of a game mechanic is an aspect of a game that - when done right - goes almost unnoticed by the player. When it is done incorrectly however, it can become a large point of frustration in the player. The goal of this study is to discover how to introduce a game mechanic that guides the player through the game's musical score. The research question asked was: "Based on player experiences, how should a non-diegetic musical guidance mechanic be introduced in a video game?" This study uses design science as a foundation and uses a survey to gain a broad overview of the general preferences given by participants. Two versions of a prototype were developed which was played by 11 participants who were then asked about their experience. In both versions, the player was tasked with finding the magic flutes scattered across a city by listening to the music. The flute was stereo panned to the left or right speaker, corresponding the direction of the flute in the game world. The versions contained two different methods of introduction and the participant was asked in a semi-structured interview afterwards whether they enjoyed the method they received. One version contained a detailed introduction that described how the guidance mechanic worked, the other version did not. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis to extract common themes in the answers given. The results were varied, but the majority said that they preferred to learn by themselves, without a detail introduction. This method let the player think for themselves and led to a greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when figuring out what to do. For a game such as this where the objective is to somehow find something, they believed that it is better to not give the answer away too freely. Not many ethical concerns where found for this study, though the one that was found is important to acknowledge. Players with aural impairments cannot play this game the way it is intended, by listening to the musical score, since they have difficulties with sound. This is a flaw that should be studied and solved or mitigated in future studies.

This thesis aims to create an easy to play exergame that can be used by office workers in theirday-to-day work to battle the long-term consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. A sedentarylifestyle can lead to serious health risks such as obesity and diabetes. This gives exergames anopportunity to be implemented in the daily life of the affected. Exergames have evolved frombeing solely playable from their own console such as Wii or Xbox Kinect to only needing a webcamera, making it accessible and portable for office workers and others all around the globe. Theonly thing left is the actual exergames themselves. The goal of this thesis is to expand an existinglibrary of exergames with a unique boxing game. The research questions are as follows, 1: Howshould the game be designed to incite large body movements? 2: How will achieving higherscores impact the players' movement? Answering research question one will involve a lot of trialand error and creative thinking to come up with a solution that answers the question but alsofeels good to play. Research question two will require user data collected during the gameplay tobe analyzed to see relations between the total movement and the total score. Tracking elbows todetect whether a cube is hit as well as having cubes always spawn on opposite sides is anefficient way to incite large body movements as the player needs to rotate the entire upper bodyand reach further than tracking the wrists would have required. The analyzed user data showedthat there was a linear relation between achieving a higher score and the total movementexercised during the game. Gaps between the right-hand elbow and left-hand elbows’ totalmovement were also found.

This thesis tries to provide a comparative study and complimentary data analysis into the effectiveness of game design patterns such as LEGO Serious Play, Leaderboards and Collective voting in terms of the impact that gamification has in change management framework. The study is looking at how gamification impacts employees from a motivational and engagement, in change management tasks, perspective. In a first instance, the researcher/author references and reviews key theories such as theory of fun for game design, motivational theory and change theory. Furthermore, a literature search/review for those theories has taken place to identify what the current scientific base has captured around gamification impact in engagement, motivation and performance of individuals and all potential limitations as well. This led to a clear and specific existing baseline framework. At a later stage, researcher/author describes the research strategy and methodology used to apply three specific gamification techniques to a real organisation (participants – n=20) which delivers change and is going through a transformation process. This included two different data collection methods; semi-structured interviews with organisation’s employees and participant observations within the organisation’s headquarters offices. The participant observation data collection compliments the interviews’ one, which acted as the primary method. The study examines the impact the gamification techniques had on the organisation’s employees while they deliver change daily, their interactions within sessions and meetings, decision making events and other. Findings, through the thematic analysis process, include the participants’ feedback on their overall experience, reward and joyfulness when use gamification. Results show that gamification tools and techniques compliment positively employees within the change management framework, increasing the enjoyment of participation in change activities without increasing competitiveness and also enables more effective decision making. It is important to highlight that creativity seems that is increased as well, through gamification application. It is hoped that knowledge and understanding of the impact of gamification techniques in change management framework could be found useful in an industry related environment and the results of this study could be extended to other areas as well.