As a bachelor’s degree project, the study examines elements that may affect or distort players’ perception of opponents’ behavior in games. More specifically in stationary character driven games such as Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Elements that were chosen as a focus in the study were visual character design and participants previous experiences, such as knowledge of games in general and familiarity with Texas Hold ‘em Poker. A game prototype was designed as a tool to use when examining the subject. In the game prototype, players were seated at a Texas Hold ‘em Poker table and faced two opponents. One opponent was designed to be visually aggressive and the other visually defensive. Participants of the study were asked to answer a questionnaire and the resulting answers were analyzed in an attempt to find relevant information in regards to the subject of this project. The results of the study suggest that the elements chosen do affect players’ perception of opponents’ behavior. / Som ett kandidatexamensarbete undersöktes vilka element som kan påverka eller förvränga spelares uppfattning om motståndares beteende i spel. Mer specifikt i stationära karaktärsdrivna spel så som Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Element som utvaldes för undersökningen utgjordes av visuell karaktärsdesign och medverkandes tidigare erfarenheter, så som kunskap om spel i allmänhet och kännedom om Texas Hold ‘em Poker. En spelprototyp skapades som ett verktyg för att undersöka ämnet. I spelprototypen sattes spelare vid ett Texas Hold ‘em Poker-bord och mötte två motståndare. En motståndare var utformad att vara visuellt aggressiv och den andra visuellt defensiv. Medverkande i studien blev tillfrågade via ett frågeformulär och de resulterande svaren analyserades i ett försök att hitta relevant information gällande ämnet. Studiens resultat antyder att elementen som valdes verkligen påverkar spelares uppfattning om motståndares beteende i spel.

Title: Multi-platform environment for mobile-game development Author: Ivan Vacula Department: Department of Software Engineering Supervisor: RNDr. David Bednárek, Ph.D. Supervisor's e-mail address: bednarek@ksi.mff.cuni.cz Abstract: Smart mobile devices are getting more and more popular these days. But there comes a problem with their expansion as well. Mobile operating systems differ from each other, as do mobile devices themselves, so development across multiple platforms is not simple. Situation is even worse when it comes to games. These need to use limited resources of a mobile device as much as possible, taking into account quick response to user actions, graphical execution et cetera. The first goal of this thesis is to compare existing solutions for multi-platform mobile game development. The second goal is to design a new system. This system must ensure targeting of multiple platforms during mobile game development. Included in this thesis is implementation of the system on two vastly different operating systems as well as implementation of a demonstration game. Keywords: multi-platform, mobile, smartphone, game, development

The purpose of this study is to investigate how prototyping of video game levels can be made more accessible by developing a user-friendly game level creation system, evaluating it and producing a number of design principles to be followed when designing such systems. The research question for this study is thus: How can video game level creation be made more accessible? There were several key areas at the center of this study such as Usability, GUI Design, Prototyping, and Game Development. This study utilized an adaption of the Design Science Research Methodology, and evaluation of the resulting artifact was done via user testing and surveys. Survey responses revealed that 95% of the participants successfully completed the main task of the trial, to create a completable video game level within 25 minutes. In addition, all participants answered a 3 (neutral) to 5 (best) on ranked survey questions relating to the usability of the artifact. This study resulted in design principles which were derived from the survey responses via a qualitative decoding process. The conclusion drawn is that computer game level creation can be made more accessible via the development of tools abiding by the design principles proposed by this study.

This research is examining one of the most dominant managerial methods used in development in the video game industry, Agile development. More particularly, the thesis examines a certain attribute of Agile development, that of iteration. The thesis will set to examine how iteration affects several layers of development during the production of a video game and whether it can be replaced by other managerial technics.As a result, the purpose of this thesis is to raise a different viewpoint against the Agile’s iteration. Furthermore, this thesis aims to contribute to the academic research by concentrating on the video game industry, an industry that is often neglected by the academia.The theoretical framework and literature review concentrate on concepts of Agile development, overworking, development cycle in video games, definitions of project success and project failures and creative process in video game development.The thesis deploys qualitative methodology to address and research its data. The collected data belongs to two categories, data stemming from interviews conducted by the thesis’s author and data stemming from journalistic magazines.The results of both type of data are compared and act supplementary to each other, then they are analyzed to answer the research questions asked by this thesis. The results showcase that iteration has negative effects to video game developers in both a macroscale (company’s resources, annual revenue) and in a microscale (overworking, health issues) level. The results also highlight that Agile is an all-time favorite development methodology of developers in the video game industry.In conclusion, the thesis supports the notion that iteration should be suppressed and proposes a number of solutions for that matter. The suggestions are essentially encouragement towards developers: to seek higher interactivity with customers throughout the duration of all the development stages of a video game, to show more trust to established gameplay mechanics and to place more reliance on a franchise’s profit power and benefits. These measures can be used in a preventive manner in order to limit the appearance of iteration and as a result, to limit its’ negative effects.

This licentiate thesis describes the development of the Swedish computer and video game industry. The main focus is on the Swedish game development industry. Little research on the industry has been done and the purpose is to define the companies involved and to create an initial overview of the development of the industry. This overview will later be used as a platform for the doctorial thesis. Games are a growing culture form and today a lot of people are playing different types of computer and video games. Internationally the industry has expanded and some of the successful games have generated spectacular revenues. In Sweden the industry has received attention from different actors like universities, government bodies and media. There are today educations that are focused on game development and there are programs which allocates grants towards game companies. The rapid development in the computers technology has had a great impact on the game industry, which is dependent on hardware development to create games. The first computer games were made for some of the very first computers in the 1940´s and 1950´s. In the 1970´s a market for games was created when arcade machines and somewhat later home consoles were introduced. The industry has grown and includes today some of the largest companies in the world. The Swedish industry follows the international pattern but developed a bit later and the first Swedish game companies were founded in the late 1980´s. The industry has expanded, especially between 1998 and 2002. In 2005 the number of people employed in the industry had increased to over 600. During the period under study the industry seems to have had a constant problem with making a profit. Especially in 2002 and 2003 the industry has had economic problems and some of the lager companies were bankrupt.

Over the many years since their inception, the complexity of video games has risen considerably. With this increase in complexity comes an increase in the number of possible choices for players and increased difficultly for developers who try to balance the effectiveness of these choices. In this thesis we demonstrate that unsupervised learning can give game developers extra insight into their own games, providing them with a tool that can potentially alert them to problems faster than they would otherwise be able to find. Specifically, we use DBSCAN to look at League of Legends and the metagame players have formed with their choices and attempt to detect when the metagame shifts possibly giving the developer insight into what changes they should affect to achieve a more balanced, fun game.

<p>This licentiate thesis describes the development of the Swedish computer and video game industry. The main focus is on the Swedish game development industry. Little research on the industry has been done and the purpose is to define the companies involved and to create an initial overview of the development of the industry. This overview will later be used as a platform for the doctorial thesis.</p><p>Games are a growing culture form and today a lot of people are playing different types of computer and video games. Internationally the industry has expanded and some of the successful games have generated spectacular revenues. In Sweden the industry has received attention from different actors like universities, government bodies and media. There are today educations that are focused on game development and there are programs which allocates grants towards game companies. The rapid development in the computers technology has had a great impact on the game industry, which is dependent on hardware development to create games.</p><p>The first computer games were made for some of the very first computers in the 1940´s and 1950´s. In the 1970´s a market for games was created when arcade machines and somewhat later home consoles were introduced. The industry has grown and includes today some of the largest companies in the world.</p><p>The Swedish industry follows the international pattern but developed a bit later and the first Swedish game companies were founded in the late 1980´s. The industry has expanded, especially between 1998 and 2002. In 2005 the number of people employed in the industry had increased to over 600. During the period under study the industry seems to have had a constant problem with making a profit. Especially in 2002 and 2003 the industry has had economic problems and some of the lager companies were bankrupt.</p>

<p>The objective of this Master's thesis is to study whether it is possible to create a versatile game engine that can be both application independent and easy to use. In order to study this issue, we have implemented a prototype game engine that supports 2D game development. The system includes predefined programming constructs in order to make game development faster and easier.The conclusion of this thesis work is that the presented problem, while theoretically possible to solve, would introduce too many practical problems during the game development. Furthermore, we conclude that growth in ease of use may limit the functionality of the engine.</p>

This thesis examines the architecture and space simulated in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and argues that the hand which guides the design of virtual architecture and space in these games originates from the same primogenitor of traditional mythology. The simulation of the game-world and the performance of in-game elements which include, avatars, player characters, non-player characters (NPCs), and artifacts, is regulated by the semantics of an in-game narrative that maintains a core structure of hierarchical spaces and traditional and modified architectural paradigms. Hierarchical spaces and architectural interventions are used to curate a mythologically derived model of personal transformation known as the ‘Hero Cycle’ that is based on hermeneutic principles whereby the identity of the collective is required to understand the identity of the individual. As a result, this cycle of personal transformation relies on the integration of the individual with the collective and is a revitalizing process within society. While it is believed that contemporary (computer) role-playing games (RPGs) are built on the shoulders of early pen and paper (PNP) role-playing games, both the early PNP and later RPGs are in fact founded on principles of ritual movement through space, developed by traditional mythology to enact Hero Cycles and by ritualized religious worship, to symbolically enact mythology. Role-playing games can bring forth the benefits of the experience of mythological progenitors of cultural narratives and religious theology. In-game, a narrative is presented to players as the face of the collective identity of the game-world and incorporates many traditional (and modified) iconographic and architectonic typologies that support the semantics of game-play and the theology that ties the game-mechanics to the narrative.

This thesis examines the architecture and space simulated in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and argues that the hand which guides the design of virtual architecture and space in these games originates from the same primogenitor of traditional mythology. The simulation of the game-world and the performance of in-game elements which include, avatars, player characters, non-player characters (NPCs), and artifacts, is regulated by the semantics of an in-game narrative that maintains a core structure of hierarchical spaces and traditional and modified architectural paradigms. Hierarchical spaces and architectural interventions are used to curate a mythologically derived model of personal transformation known as the ‘Hero Cycle’ that is based on hermeneutic principles whereby the identity of the collective is required to understand the identity of the individual. As a result, this cycle of personal transformation relies on the integration of the individual with the collective and is a revitalizing process within society. While it is believed that contemporary (computer) role-playing games (RPGs) are built on the shoulders of early pen and paper (PNP) role-playing games, both the early PNP and later RPGs are in fact founded on principles of ritual movement through space, developed by traditional mythology to enact Hero Cycles and by ritualized religious worship, to symbolically enact mythology. Role-playing games can bring forth the benefits of the experience of mythological progenitors of cultural narratives and religious theology. In-game, a narrative is presented to players as the face of the collective identity of the game-world and incorporates many traditional (and modified) iconographic and architectonic typologies that support the semantics of game-play and the theology that ties the game-mechanics to the narrative.