This project demonstrates opening cinematic design from conceptualization to final composition. Using Unreal Engine 5, I created an opening cutscene using Unreal’s sequencer editor to film and edit my shots. This document presents the steps I took to create my sequence from the writing process to the final layout. Starting as a written story, I worked my way to the final project by creating a mock scene and storyboarding. After this, I built my scene using assets from the Unreal marketplace and lit my scene with HDRI and dynamic lighting. I encountered many new programs such as Cascade and Mixamo to create and edit particle effects for my scene and animations for my protagonist character. I created unique sound effects for the level, recorded my shots with movement and color correction, and edited the final composition.

Architecture and game design both have very similar goals: they both are seeking to create 3-dimensional environments that deliver an optimal user experience. In game design, these environments are simulated, whereas in architecture these environments are eventually made real. Architects are uniquely able to envision fully realized 3-dimensional environments from abstract 2-dimensional drawings. Because of this, the spatial qualities of a building can remain obfuscated to anyone besides the designer until the building is actually constructed. Tools from game design offer the opportunity to not only communicate a building's spatial qualities to users and clients during the design process, but also the ability to establish metrics against which the success of a current design iteration can be tested. In game design, this is called "playtesting". Playtesting in this project involves porting a digital model of of the building into a game engine, and allowing a designer or user to interact by moving around the model with a controller. This "playtesting" process allows a designer to gather meaningful and informative feedback from users during the design process, by observing and inquiring about the user's experience during the playtest. In addition, these tools simulate the experience of movement through the space, something very difficult to understand from static drawings. This thesis was explored through the design of an elementary school in Alexandria, VA. Elementary schools are often the subject of extensive study on user experience, because creating an optimal learning environment is so crucial to the success of young students. . / Master of Architecture

Orbital is a virtual reality gaming experience designed to explore the use of traditional narrative structure to enhance immersion in virtual reality. The story structure of Orbital was developed based on the developmental steps of 'The Hero's Journey,' a narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell. Using this standard narrative pattern, Orbital is capable of immersing the player quickly and completely for the entirety of play time. / Master of Fine Arts / <i>Orbital</i> is a virtual reality video game, in which an astronaut must navigate an asteroid field and reach a nearby space station prior to running out of fuel. The control of this astronaut was bound to a player’s head mounted display, which tracked the direction a player was looking and placed the player in the immersive experience. This experience was designed as an exploration of how traditional long-form narrative structure (films/books) could be applied to a short virtual reality experience. In the hope that it could provide a more immersive experience for the player. The story structure of <i>Orbital</i> was developed based on the developmental steps of ‘The Hero’s Journey,’ a narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell. Using this standard narrative pattern, <i>Orbital</i> is capable of immersing the player quickly and completely for the entirety of play time.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Diogo Rodrigues Albiero.pdf: 70379977 bytes, checksum: fb9b1276b50014ad042bb447d1800b53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-17 / This dissertation seeks to understand the relationship between game design and the player on the construction of experiences manufactured in videogames. Due to its interactive nature, we can understand that videogames are made by two instances in the construction of its language and experience: on one hand, the game design defines how the game will be; and on another, the player, key-element, interacts and renews the choices made for the game. The question of how the experiences in videogames happen is instigated through this mutuality. With this purpose we seek to understand the concept of experience through the duality proposed by Eduard Gámez, using Martin Heidegger s phenomenological perspective and John Dewey s pragmatic view. We then go to a practical approach on how to create the language of videogames, based on Jesse Schell, Tracy Fullerton, Jesper Juul and Jane McGonigal. After identifying the key-elements to understand how videogames configure their language, we switch to the player s perspective. By using Gámez s Core Elements of Gaming Experience, we seek to identify similar aspects from players experience and how they eventually conform a subjective outcome from playing. These theoretical pillars end up in the analysis of the game Heavy Rain. It allows the concepts and examples used in the text to be effectively analyzed as a whole. The bibliographical revision and the approach given during the dissertation allow the evaluation of videogames under the game design and the player s perspective, heading towards the creation of the experience of this media on a mutual path. Through this we can see videogames from a wider point of view, understanding its processes and the potential they carry in their core as a media / Este trabalho busca entender a relação entre o game design e o jogador na construção das experiências agenciadas pelos videogames. Por sua natureza interativa, podemos entender que os videogames são compostos por duas instâncias na construção de sua linguagem e experiência: de um lado, o game design comporta escolhas feitas e define como o jogo será; de outro, o jogador, peça-chave, interagindo e atualizando o espaço criado. Gera-se a questão de como as experiências nos videogames acontecem a partir dessa mutualidade. Para isso buscamos entender o conceito de experiência através da dualidade proposta por Eduardo Gámez a partir da perspectiva fenomenológica de Martin Heidegger e da pragmática de John Dewey. Passa-se a uma abordagem prática de como se constrói a linguagem dos videogames, baseada em Jesse Schell, Tracy Fullerton, Jesper Juul e Jane McGonigal. Após configurar elementos-chave para entender como os videogames configuram sua linguagem, busca-se o olhar jogador. Almeja-se, tendo como base o modelo dos Elementos Centrais da Experiência do Jogo (Gámez), identificar pontos semelhantes das experiências dos jogadores e como elas conformam eventualmente um resultado subjetividade do jogar. Esses pilares teóricos culminam na análise do jogo Heavy Rain. Ela permite que os conceitos e exemplos discorridos durante a dissertação possam ser efetivamente analisados como um todo. A revisão bibliográfica e o caminho tecido durante o trabalho permitem que possamos avaliar os videogames sob a perspectiva do game design e do jogador, que caminham juntas para a criação da experiência da mídia. Isso permite que enxerguemos os videogames de uma maneira mais ampla, entendendo seus processos e a potencialidade que carregam dentro de seu âmbito midiático

This thesis explores the creation of music for a video game level utilizing industry tools for music compositions as well as level design. Music as an element of game design and its resulting impact is also examined.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de donner une définition générale et mesurable de la difficulté du gameplay dans un jeu vidéo. Elle propose une méthode et un outil pour mesurer cette difficulté. La méthode de mesure couramment employée est en effet principalement heuristique et propre au contexte de chaque jeu. Nous proposons une approche générique d'analyse du gameplay qui prend en compte l'apprentissage du joueur et permet une évaluation statistique de la difficulté d'un gameplay. Dans un premier temps, la thèse explore les liens entre difficulté, game design, et plaisir de jouer. Nous étudions diverses formes de difficultés : sensorielles, logiques et motrices. Après diverses expérimentations d'analyse automatique de gameplay, nous détaillons notre modèle de mesure de la difficulté, et l'analyse en challenges et capacités d'un gameplay, ainsi que le logiciel associé. Finalement, nous présentons une expérience, dont l'objectif est de tester la faisabilité et la précision de notre modèle.

This research focuses on pushing forward the understanding of mental disorders portrayals in games, more specifically social anxiety, which still lies as a marginalized topic in this medium. In order to understand honest manifestations of social anxiety in games, the first step is to conduct a close reading of games made by people who suffer from this mental disorder. A collection of five indie games, all of autobiographical nature and featuring social anxiety as an important part of their text, was put together for this analysis. This was done embracing the need to address the representational complexity, in order to tap into such a nuanced and elusive topic as social anxiety, not to identify rights or wrongs, but to engage in a discussion of how experiences are represented in games by people directly affected by this mental disorder. Individual experiences also contribute to expand interpretations and to identify additional keys of social anxiety representation. This is done by reaching informants, people living with a comorbid mental illnesses or disorders, that face or had faced social anxiety, and assess their perspectives through an experiential workshop. This work intends to further explore the practice of game design as mediator of experiences, contributing to both deepen the knowledge of game design and explore nuances of individual experiences present in autobiographical games and how this relates to perspectives of other people living with social anxiety. By combining the games and informants perspectives it is possible to structure a debate about game design patterns based on the findings of the game analysis and further elaborated with the nuanced perceptions gathered from informants. The knowledge acquired through this work is a step towards understanding of how games can represent, in an honest and non-stereotypical way, mental disorders, starting with social anxiety and, hopefully, contribute to spark other studies to broaden the spectrum of how the complexity of adverse mental conditions can be more respectfully addressed in games.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2016-11-08T18:31:42Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) UFPE_Thesis_Banca - Versao CD.pdf: 2366448 bytes, checksum: a4140d14e1e225bd5040d825447a2a1b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-08T18:31:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) UFPE_Thesis_Banca - Versao CD.pdf: 2366448 bytes, checksum: a4140d14e1e225bd5040d825447a2a1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-30 / Diversos estudos mostram que o modelo educacional atual está bastante defasado: as escolas enfrentam concorrência com vários dispositivos eletrônicos; o índice de evasão escolar é bastante elevado; os alunos não conseguem se identificar como sendo parte do ambiente escolar; o aprendizado é limitado pelo ambiente dentro da sala de aula e não inclui possibilidades de aprendizado fora dela. Estes fatores, entre diversos outros, se tornam decisivos para que os jovens alunos se sintam desmotivados em aprender dentro da sala de aula, um fato que vem aumentando muito nos últimos anos. Algumas linhas de pesquisa afirmam que a escola deveria possuir um modelo curricular mais atraente, para isto, propõem várias propostas de reforma educacional, entre os quais uma em que a escola possa aproveitar as características dos jogos para funcionar de uma forma em que o aluno se sinta participando de um jogo, aumentando assim o engajamento do mesmo. Para que se faça bom uso destas características, é necessário um melhor entendimento de como elas influenciam positivamente no processo de ensino. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as características dos jogos que visam tornar o modelo de ensino mais eficaz, demonstrando suas qualidades mais importantes e como elas podem ser utilizadas para tornar o aprendizado mais atraente e envolvente para os alunos / Several studies shows that the actual educational model is obsolete: schools face competition with various electronic devices; the dropout rate is quite high; students cannot identify as being part of the school environment; learning is limited by the environment within the classroom and does not include learning opportunities elsewhere. These factors, among many others, become decisive for the young students feel motivated to learn in the classroom, a fact that has grown rapidly in recent years. Some lines of research argue that the school should have a more attractive curriculum model for this, propose several proposals for educational reform, including one in which the school can take advantage of the features of the games to work in a way that the student feel playing a game, thus increasing the engagement of the same. In order to make good use of these features, you need a better understanding of how they influence positively in the teaching process. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of games that aim to make the most effective teaching model, demonstrating its most important qualities and how they can be used to make the more attractive and engaging learning for students

This paper follows the process of the authors using deep game design as means of expression by making a game that models the authors experience of anger suppression. It will be based on theories of psychology to define what suppressed emotions are. It also includes other game design theories that are different from Deep Games discovered in the books Art of Game Design and Game Design Workshop. The ideas of preproduction are looked at briefly.  Subsequently, the game is tested iteratively through qualitative interviews with the purpose of studying how the players identify the metaphors in the game. The development process is documented through three iterations, where each iteration is broken down into the technical aspect, the metaphors, the results of the playtests, the findings, and then a short discussion. The authors find four aspects on how to apply deep game design, and three different understandings of their metaphors by the players. / Den här avhandlingen följer författarnas process att göra ett deep game som ett sätt att utrycka sig om undertryckt ilska. Den kommer till största del grunda sig på teorier om psykologi för att definiera vad undertryckta känslor är. Avhandlingen innehåller även andra speldesignsteorier som skiljer sig ifrån Deep Games som beskrivs i böckerna Art of Game Design och Game Design Workshop. Idéerna från förproduktionen undersöks kort.  Därefter testas spelet iterativt genom kvalitativa intervjuer med syfte att studera hur spelarna identifierar metaforerna i spelet. Sedan undersöks idéerna som skapades under förproduktionen. Utvecklingsprocessen dokumenteras genom tre iterationer, varje iteration bryts ned till dess tekniska delar, metaforer, resultat av speltest, samt en kort diskussion.   Författarna identifierar fyra aspekter på hur man använder deep game design och att spelarna har tre olika förståelser av deras metaforer.

Can you teach someone to be a video game designer? This was the principal question behind the experimental class "Game Design & Testing" taught summer 2009 and again in 2010 at East Tennessee State University. The class did not attempt to encompass the technical aspects of video game modeling or scripting. It was focused on the possibilities of teaching students how to recognize, create and critique distinct game elements, then design interesting games around the concepts they learned. What makes a game fun, what makes some games memorable, what does it take to create balance in a game, what goes into making a game that is easy to learn and difficult to master, these were some of the questions set to the students throughout the semester?