No description available.

The aim of this report is to see whether the graphic design of a game influences children’s will to play games. I am especially looking at minimalist graphic design and how well it works for a game aimed at children age 7-9. Does the style of the game design have any impact at all concerning the children’s wish to play the game or is the game mechanic all that matters. The final results concluded that although the graphic design plays a part in the children’s willingness to play the game the game mechanics are by far the biggest factor in whether children will play the game or not.

Denna studie berör områdena participatory design, speldesign samt idégenerering och syftar till att undersöka hur spelföretag interagerar med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign samt om participatory design kan användas i speldesign för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap.Studien har genomförts med intervjuer och undersökningar i form av en analys av fyra svenska spelföretags hemsidor och sociala medier för att se på deras interaktion med sina slutanvändare vid speldesign, samt en participatory designworkshop.Resultaten från litteraturstudien och workshopen visar på att participatory design kan användas för att främja känslor av delaktighet och ägandeskap hos deltagarna. Vidare visar undersökningen av de svenska spelföretagen att interaktionen med sina slutanvändare över lag är låg.De slutsatser som studien visar på är att genom att erbjuda sina användare möjligheten att bli delaktiga och att interagera med spelföretaget så får man en aktiv och stimulerande miljö vilken gynnar både spelföretaget och deras slutanvändare. Vad gäller participatory design så visar studien att det är ett förhållningssätt som går att använda inom speldesign. Vidare så visar det också sig att, om behovet för att välja ut mellan flera olika metoder och tekniker inom participatory design uppstår, så är ett ramverk ett mycket användbart och hjälpsamt verktyg. / This study encorporates the areas participatory design, game design and idea generation and serves to investigate how game developers interact with their end-users on game design. It also investigates if participatory design can be used in game design to promote feelings of participation and ownership.The study is based on interviews and research in the form of an analysis of four Swedish game developers' websites and social media profiles. This is done to see how and if they interact with their end-users in game design. Also, a workshop in participatory design and game design was carried out to see if the participants felt participation and ownership.The results of the workshops evaluation show that participatory design can be used to promote feelings participation and ownership with the participants. The results also show that the interaction between the Swedish game developers and their end-users were overall low but not nonexistent.The conclusions that can be shown in this study are firstly that by offering the end-users the option to involve and interact with the game developers one can receive an active and stimulating environment which is beneficial to the game developers themselves as well as their end-users. Secondly, the study shows participatory design is an approach that is applicable to game design. Further, it is also shown that if the need to choose between different methods and tools in participatory design should arise, then the use of aframework is proven to be a useful and helpful tool.

The thesis will focus on the methods of establishing group work objectives and in turn create focused groups that spend more time being productive and enjoying their efforts than having to go through trivial yet troublesome organization and structure sorting evaluation periods.

This paper describes the development process of an Interactive Fiction game focused on the theme oflanguage. The paper includes a brief description of the history of the genre and its definitions, a discussionabout its multiple variations and attributes, and an overview of some examples that handled similar subjects.Then it considers some of the unique properties of the written language and examines language as both ashared and subjective relationship with reality . This is followed by a description of tools and methodsadopted in the design process and how the development went — from initial research to the final concept.The results is then described, followed by the user test results and a critical evaluation. At the end, someconcluding remarks are included together with possible future developments.

Procedural content generation (PCG) can be a useful tool for aiding creativityand efficiency in the process of designing game levels. Mixed-initiative level genera-tion tools where a designer and an algorithm collaborate to iteratively generate gamelevels have been used for this purpose – taking advantage of the combination of com-putational efficiency and human intuition and creativity. However, it can be difficultfor designers to work with tools that do not respond to the common language of games:game design patterns.It has been demonstrated that game design patterns can be integrated into PCGalgorithms, but formally-defined and hierarchically-arranged game design patternshave not yet been used as a means of increasing gameplay-based control in mixed-initiative dungeon generators. We present a method for evolving dungeon rooms usingmulti-level game design patterns in the objective function of a genetic algorithm, aswell as an instantiation of this method in a mixed-initiative dungeon design tool. Ourresults show that we are able to control the frequency and type of design patterns ingenerated rooms using pattern-related input parameters, enabling us to create dungeonrooms containing a wide variety of patterns on different levels of abstraction.Results from a small-scale user study of professional game developers suggest thatthe use of game design patterns in mixed-initiative level design tools can be a promisingway of providing a good starting point when designing a level, as well as offeringmeaningful gameplay related feedback throughout the design process. We also identifychallenges that will need to be faced if game design pattern-based mixed-initiative leveldesign tools are to become a part of the game designer’s toolkit.

Writing is a notoriously time-consuming and challenging activity that is difficult to avoid during the development of a game, and the steady increase in complexity behind producing games is putting pressure on the industry to cut unnecessary costs and streamline processes. With recent breakthroughs in Neural Network research the capabilities of causal language models like the GPT models made by OpenAI have reached a level where they could be used to assist with creative assignments that previously only could be done to an acceptable level of quality by a human writer. This paper aims to combine the power of a language model with the versatility and control of the Mixed-Initiative Co-Creation approach. In order to limit the scope of the artifact to a manageable size the focus will be to generate a shorter biography with backstory for characters and items in a level made in the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer by Alvarez et al. The artifact was evaluated with a user study in which both quantitative ratings and qualitative feedback was collected. The results suggest that the artifact has potential as it has the ability to generate compelling narratives and users attested that it had a positive effect on their work.

In this thesis we explore the various challenges of conveying environmental narratives in a fast-paced first-person game. The study is set within the context of our game Project Chaser, a fast-paced first-person 3D platforming game in which the player is constantly chased by an artificial creature, leaving little room for slowing down. Through this game, we aim to investigate the use of visual attention frameworks and environmental storytelling techniques, such as indexical storytelling and semiotics of architecture, to tell a story without disrupting the fast-paced nature of the game. Using iterative design and qualitative research methods we aim to identify effective techniques for capturing the players' attention and facilitating good narrative comprehension. In this study, we discuss the use of contrasting colors, lighting, and architectural connotations to direct the players' attention with the goal of implicitly telling a narrative without the use of text or cut scenes. Our findings suggest that careful design choices can have a meaningful impact on the player’s comprehension of the narrative while not compromising the pacing of the game. However, if the narrative elements are poorly placed or do not communicate the intended narrative, the fast-paced nature of the game can prevent the player from arriving at the correct conclusion, should the narrative elements be misunderstood at the beginning of the game.

I denna undersökning analyseras Quakes troper/aspekter i jämförelse med ett urval av Boomer Shooters för att se hur spelutvecklare implementerat och tolkat dessa troper. Quake har haft stor inverkan på First Person Shooter (FPS) genren sedan spelet lanserades under 90-talet, med allt fler FPS spel som tagit efter Quakes troper och designval. Under en längre period har FPS genren utvecklats och haft ett större fokus på narrativ och linjära spelupplevelser. Men på senare år har allt fler 90-tals inspirerade FPS publicerats och med den framtagna metoden som är en hybrid mellan koncept och Pughs matris, jämförs hur urvalet av Boomer Shooter förhåller sig till Quakes troper. Resultatet visar på en kombination av troper som kvarstått, ändrats eller inte implementerats alls. Analysen innehåller en subjektiv tolkning av spelen och det finns andra troper som multiplayer som skulle kunna analyseras mer i detalj i framtida studier.

This paper explores the interpretations of narrative in the video game Sunseeker andhow players experience implicit narrative. Sunseeker aims to use techniques likeenvironmental design, colour theory, and non-verbal storytelling to communicate its storywith players. Testers played through a segment of Sunseeker and were interviewed afterwardson their understanding of the story and its characters. Findings showed that most of theplayers' understanding came from sequential images in the form of cutscenes. Theirunderstandings were also furthered by artefacts in the environment suggesting an embeddednarrative, as well as hue shifts in the background communicating tone and mood. This papercan be used by game developers looking to enhance the storytelling in their video games or asa basis for further research into similar topics.