This paper can be seen as a first step towards developing genre tailored heuristics for visual novels. The focus being visual novels come from the fact that it is a genre of games that is growing in popularity globally. Besides players and developers, it is also popular among researchers because the genre is very accessible (Camingue, Carstensdottir & Melcer 2021). But let’s say the developers and researchers want to evaluate a visual novel they are creating, what methods would be fitting. There isn’t a lot of research on this, so the method suggested in this paper is heuristic evaluation, due to it being a very accessible method (Nielsen 1994). To tailor heuristics for this genre, a compiled list of heuristics was used to evaluate a number of visual novels and the data from the evaluation was analyzed and used to identify problems that weren’t addressed by the heuristics.

This study investigated what factors come into play when looking at the user experience involved with the commercial video game Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition), and sought to determine if the unique combination between sandbox and smart toy based gameplay present in gameplay offers an additional level of immersion. This study analyzed the effect of Disney Infinity (2.0 Edition) on immersion utilizing a Game Immersion Questionnaire modified to analyze play preference as well as video game experience. The study methodology analyzed 48 users while playing in "Toy Box" mode both with and without the associated smart toys, or Disney characters. Results show that while there was no significant difference in immersion for either group, nor were there any significant correlations between variables, there was a preference for playing the game with the associated smart toys in both groups. Recommendations were made for continued research building on modifications to this study as well as future research exploring the potential for smart toys in other areas.