The interactive nature of video games offers players unique playthroughs of the same game. Choices made during gameplay, despite going through the same narrative story, create a journey that differs from other players. Music can help support a player's connection to the game's characters and narrative while also providing information to the player to guide their decisions. Ludomusicological studies in the past have shown how music can support a game's narrative, while also serving to inform players of changes in game states. The usability function of music, while crucial in this overall sonic experience, is not the sole purpose that music can fulfill. An area in ludomusicological research that's less explored is understanding how a composer's intent for their music is not indicative of the player experience but rather influences the way players play the game and how they are emotionally impacted by the music. Combat scenarios are an effective area that showcases the usability aspects of music as well as its impact on player presence, which will be demonstrated through the game Xenoblade Chronicles. By combining the principles of presence, immersion, engagement, topic theory, and adapting the dual semiotic approach of Iain Hart, this thesis seeks to analyze the composer's intent behind musical choices and how it shapes the overall player experience.

What makes horror games different from other games is that they bring a special kind of emotion to the player and cause fear in the player. In horror games, players experience great emotional experiences and may experience different emotions such as anxiety, tension, and satisfaction. This paper aims to study and analyze how different players react to and emotionally experience fear, how players derive satisfaction and discomfort from horror games and the reasons that produce these factors. The study uses interviews and biometric data to examine the differences between players familiar with horror games and those who have less experience with this particular type of game. It was concluded that the number of experienced players with horror games also influences the comfort and discomfort, and mood changes players get from the games.

Permadeath är en spelmekanik som innebär att när en spelares karaktär dör så förloras karaktären och alla framsteg permanent. Den här undersökningens syfte var att undersöka påverkan permadeath har på en spelares upplevelse. För att undersöka detta så skapades ett spel i space shooter-genren med två versioner, en version med permadeath och en utan. 19 deltagare fick spela båda versionerna och därefter fick de svara på en enkät som undersökte hur de upplevde varje version av spelet. Enkäten baserades på Player Experience Inventory (PXI) och mätte följande aspekter: nöje, nyfikenhet, bemästring, autonomi, immersion och utmaning. Resultaten utifrån enkäten visar inte någon statistisk signifikant skillnad mellan versionerna i någon av aspekterna och därför kan inga säkra slutsatser dras. Det beror sannolikt på att för få deltagare medverkade. Permadeath hade högre värden i alla aspekter vilket kan vara ett tecken på att det ger en bättre spelupplevelse men de uppmätta skillnaderna var små. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Denna studie undersöker spelmekaniken permadeath i party-baserade spel då mekaniken tycks vara outforskad för dessa spel samtidigt som forskare på ämnet permadeath efterfrågar mer forskning (Dixons 2008, Copcic, McKenzie och Hobbs 2013, Parker 2017). I studien utforskas hur permadeath påverkar olika aspekter av spelupplevelsen i spelen Darkest Dungeon (2016), XCOM 2 (2016) och Battle Brothers (2017). För att ta reda på detta användes en enkätundersökning som skickades ut på olika internetforum vilket resulterade i 322 svar som användes i undersökningen. Studiens resultat indikerar att antalet karaktärer spelaren har tillgång till är en bidragande faktor till hur spelare upplever permadeath i party-baserade spel. Deltagarna i undersökningen var mycket positiva till permadeaths inverkan på spelupplevelsen vilket motiverades med att de höjda insatserna ökade immersionen, stärkte relationerna till karaktärerna och gjorde att spelens beslut blev meningsfullare. Studien föreslår flera möjliga fortsättningar av studien eller forskning på ämnet.

El-Nasr och Moura (2015) beskriver olika tekniker för hur TV-spel kan vägleda spelaren. Tekniken samlingsbara föremål som indikerar väg beskrivs som objekt som implementeras på ett sådant sätt att de leder spelaren till en belöning eller ett mål. Problemområdet för det aktuella arbetet fokuseras i följande frågeställning: Hur påverkar en spelares grad av spelvana dess inställning till olika grader av vägledning – av sorten samlingsbara föremål som visar väg – i TV-spel? För att få svar på denna fråga utvecklas en artefakt, bestående av 3 banor skapade i Super Mario Maker (2015). Banorna innehåller olika hög grad av vägledning. En studie utvecklas och utförs på 13 deltagare, där de får spela igenom de tre banorna och svara på en intervju. Resultaten tyder på att ovana spelare mer konsekvent föredrar mycket vägledning i spel. Till sist diskuteras potentiella felkällor, och arbetets framtida potential. / El-Nasr and Moura (2015) describe different techniques with which video games lead the player. The technique collectible items indicating paths is described as objects being implemented in such a way that they lead the player to a reward or a goal. The research problem for the thesis at hand is outlined with the following research question: How does a player’s level of experience with games affect their opinions regarding different degrees of wayfinding – specifically when it comes to collectible items indicating paths – in video games? To answer this question, a prototype is developed, consisting of 3 levels created using Super Mario Maker (2015). The levels contain wayfinding elements to different extents. A study is developed and then conducted with 13 participants, in which they play the three levels and after which participate in an interview. The results suggest that inexperienced players more consistently prefer a high degree of wayfinding in games. Lastly, potential flaws and errors are discussed, as is the future of the study.

Experiência de usuário e experiência de jogador são dois conceitos que apresentam similaridades. Ambos envolvem a interação de um usuário com um produto, havendo sobreposição de métodos e áreas do conhecimento que permitem verificar experiência. Porém há diferenças quanto ao foco dado a experiência resultante da interação. Este trabalho apresenta os conceitos de experiência de usuário, usabilidade, experiência de jogador e jogabilidade apresentados pela literatura. Em seguida é discutido a relação que estas definições possuem entre si, identificando os elementos que os separam, apresentando uma possível divisão entre os conceitos de experiência de usuário e experiência de jogador e suas ferramentas. Ao fim este trabalho apresenta dois experimentos que mostram uma forma de verificar experiência de jogador em dois jogos distintos, procurando a inclusão desses métodos dentro do ciclo de desenvolvimento de jogos. Este trabalho também apresenta uma compreensão sobre experiência de jogador na interação com jogos e a inclusão de sua avaliação dentro do ciclo de desenvolvimento utilizando testes com usuários. / User experience and player experience are two concepts that have similarities. Both involve the interaction between user and product, with overlapping methods and areas of knowledge to evaluate experience. But there are differences as to the focus given to the experience resulted from the interaction. This paper first introduces the concepts of user experience, usability, player experience and playability presented in the literature. Subsequently, it discusses the relationship that these definitions have to each other, identifying the elements that separate them, presenting a possible division between user experience concepts and player experience and tools. Lastly this work presents two experiments seeking to apply the methods to verify player experience in two different games, looking for the inclusion of these methods within the game development cycle. This work presents an understanding on player experience and the inclusion of its evaluation within the development cycle with user-based tests.

Experiência de usuário e experiência de jogador são dois conceitos que apresentam similaridades. Ambos envolvem a interação de um usuário com um produto, havendo sobreposição de métodos e áreas do conhecimento que permitem verificar experiência. Porém há diferenças quanto ao foco dado a experiência resultante da interação. Este trabalho apresenta os conceitos de experiência de usuário, usabilidade, experiência de jogador e jogabilidade apresentados pela literatura. Em seguida é discutido a relação que estas definições possuem entre si, identificando os elementos que os separam, apresentando uma possível divisão entre os conceitos de experiência de usuário e experiência de jogador e suas ferramentas. Ao fim este trabalho apresenta dois experimentos que mostram uma forma de verificar experiência de jogador em dois jogos distintos, procurando a inclusão desses métodos dentro do ciclo de desenvolvimento de jogos. Este trabalho também apresenta uma compreensão sobre experiência de jogador na interação com jogos e a inclusão de sua avaliação dentro do ciclo de desenvolvimento utilizando testes com usuários. / User experience and player experience are two concepts that have similarities. Both involve the interaction between user and product, with overlapping methods and areas of knowledge to evaluate experience. But there are differences as to the focus given to the experience resulted from the interaction. This paper first introduces the concepts of user experience, usability, player experience and playability presented in the literature. Subsequently, it discusses the relationship that these definitions have to each other, identifying the elements that separate them, presenting a possible division between user experience concepts and player experience and tools. Lastly this work presents two experiments seeking to apply the methods to verify player experience in two different games, looking for the inclusion of these methods within the game development cycle. This work presents an understanding on player experience and the inclusion of its evaluation within the development cycle with user-based tests.

Abstract Modern urban space, technological infrastructure, and sociability combine into a hybrid space that is the arena for urban pervasive games. Over the past two decades the changes in this game arena have been stealthy although substantial. Technological developments have helped to achieve true mobility of gaming devices, increased precision in localization, improved connectivity, and reduced orchestration required per player. Current pervasive location-based games can be played anytime anywhere. Subsequently, doors have been opened for a growing number of commercial games. These changes demand a new conceptualization of the urban game arena. This thesis focuses on playful appropriations of hybrid space. Hybrid space is urban space that entails ubiquitous technologies. Therefore, playful appropriations of hybrid space are always, to some extent, digital as well as urban. Prior research has identified two metaphors for urban pervasive games —true mobility and true sociability. This thesis proposes an additional metaphor, called synchronicity, for binding together different realities in pervasive games. They can be anything from mirror world like realistic virtual environments, such as 3D virtual representations of a city, to abstract realities, such as the backstory of the game, or the space identity of a certain location. While location awareness is an important binding factor between the virtual and physical worlds in pervasive gameplay, synchronizable elements can be anything from encouraged collocated gameplay to semantic similarities between the combined realities. This thesis is based on five game constructs that have been specifically designed and implemented as pervasive research games. Research data has been collected and analyzed with a mixed methods approach from field trials conducted in the wild. Constructive research is complemented with a literature review that maps the characteristics of current location-based mobile games and the game space. The main contribution of this thesis is the identification of the digital, abstract, and physical layers of reality in digital urban pervasive games. The second contribution is the identification and categorization of the synchronizable elements that bind these realities together. This thesis offers initial insights into translating this knowledge into the design of future pervasive games. / Tiivistelmä Urbaanitila on jatkuvassa muutoksessa, sillä se muotoutuu ja järjestyy uudelleen siellä kulkevien kaupunkilaisten kautta. Ubiikin teknologian, ihmisten kanssakäymisen ja modernin tilakäsityksen yhteisvaikutuksesta syntyy niin sanottu hybriditila, joka muodostaa peliareenan monille pervasiivisille peleille. Viime vuosikymmeninä tällä peliareenalla on tapahtunut vaivihkaisia mutta perustavaa laatua olevia muutoksia. Pelilaitteista on tullut aidosti mobiileja, ja ne kulkevat kaikkialla pelaajien mukana. Pelijärjestely vaatii vähemmän vaivaa pelaajaa kohden, paikannuksen tarkkuus on parantunut ja muutosten kautta myös kaupallisia pelejä on enemmän saatavilla. Nykyisiä pervasiivisia sijaintipohjaisia pelejä voi pelata milloin vain ja missä vain. Edellä mainittu kehitys edellyttää pervasiivisten pelien ja pelitilan uudelleen konseptualisointia. Väitöstyön aihe ei ole pelillisyys sellaisenaan, vaan “pelillisyys ja sen hyödyntäminen hybriditilassa”. Hybriditila on aina urbaani ja sisältää ubiikkia teknologiaa, minkä vuoksi pelit tässä tilassa ovat lähes poikkeuksetta myös digitaalisia. Aiempi tutkimus esittää, että saavutetut kehitysaskeleet voi niputtaa kahden metaforan alle. Nämä metaforat ovat: aito mobiilius sekä aito sosiaalisuus. Tämä väitöskirja esittää kolmannen, vielä määrittelemättömän tai saavuttamattoman metaforan näiden jatkoksi: synkronisuus. Synkronisoitavat piirteet tai elementit sitovat todellisuuksia yhteen pervasiivisessa pelitilassa. Tilassa olevat todellisuudet voivat olla realistisia pelimaailman kaltaisia virtuaalitiloja tai abstrakteja todellisuuksia, kuten pelitarinan muodostama todellisuus tai jonkin tietyn paikan tilaidentiteetti. Vaikka sijaintipohjaisuus on tärkeä todellisuuksia yhdistävä piirre, synkronisoitavat elementit voivat olla muutakin kuin sijaintikoordinaatteja. Pervasiiviset pelit nivoutuvat pelaajiensa päivittäiseen elämään, mikä tekee pelin kontekstista erottamattoman osan peliä. Tämä ominaisuus oikeuttaa ”in the wild” -menetelmien käytön tutkimuksessa, mikä tarkoittaa, että pelaamista ja pelejä tarkkaillaan luonnossa todellisessa ympäristössään. Tässä väitöstyössä käytetään konstruktioina varta vasten tätä tutkimusta ajatellen suunniteltuja ja toteutettuja pervasiivisia tutkimuspelejeä. Konstruktiivista tutkimusta tukee lisäksi teoreettinen tutkimusosio, joka koostuu kirjallisuuskatsaukseen pohjautuvasta nykyisten sijaintipohjaisten pelien ja pelitilan kategorisoinnista. Pervasiiviset pelit nivoutuvat pelaajiensa päivittäiseen elämään, mikä tekee pelin kontekstista erottamattoman osan peliä. Tämä ominaisuus oikeuttaa ”in the wild” -menetelmien käytön tutkimuksessa, mikä tarkoittaa, että pelaamista ja pelejä tarkkaillaan luonnossa todellisessa ympäristössään. Tässä väitöstyössä käytetään konstruktioina varta vasten tätä tutkimusta ajatellen suunniteltuja ja toteutettuja pervasiivisia tutkimuspelejeä. Konstruktiivista tutkimusta tukee lisäksi teoreettinen tutkimusosio, joka koostuu kirjallisuuskatsaukseen pohjautuvasta nykyisten sijaintipohjaisten pelien ja pelitilan kategorisoinnista.

The purpose of this Grounded Theory study is to investigate the positive and negative effects of Game Analytics and how it may affect the Game Design process within the Game Development process. This is done by reviewing and observing available source material appertaining to Triple AAA Games Industry Experts regarding the topics of Game Analytics, Gameplay, Game Design as well as Game Development. The source material consists of publications, presentations, articles and lectures directly linked to the aforementioned areas in which will be used to reinforce the theory. Through the collected data the theory will emerge which will present the potential positive and negative aspects as well as issues regarding using Game Analytics to track the player’s behavior in order to directly affect and possibly alter the Game Design process. The results highlight the positive aspects of using Game Analytics in the Game Design process in which indicate that it is helpful for the Game Designer to utilize the player’s behavioral data captured from Gameplay. This acts as a powerful extension over the traditional design process. The negative aspects have indicated that Game Analytics is a new practice and is still met with prejudice as it requires a lot of knowledge to be able to be used right in the Game Design process. The theory indicates that Game Analytics is a step in the right direction as it enables the Game Designer to gain further understanding of their players with the end goal of creating a better Gameplay experience. / Syftet med denna Grounded Theory studie är att undersöka de positiva och negativa effekterna av spelanalys och hur det kan påverka speldesign processen inom spelutvecklings processen. Detta görs genom att granska och observera tillgängligt källmaterial som är relaterat till Triple AAA spelindustrin och experter inom spelbranschen med fokus på spelanalys, spelande, speldesign och spelutveckling. Källmaterialet består av publikationer, presentationer, artiklar och föreläsningar som är direkt kopplade till ovannämnda områden som kommer att användas för att förstärka teorin. Genom det insamlade källmaterialet kommer teorin att utvecklas som presenterar de potentiella positiva och negativa aspekter om att använda spelanalys för att spåra spelarens beteende för att direkt påverka och eventuellt förändra speldesign processen. Resultaten framhäver de positiva aspekterna av att använda spelanalys i speldesign processen som tyder på att det är fördelaktigt för speldesignern att utnyttja spelarens beteenderelaterade data tagna från spelet. Detta fungerar som en kraftfull förstärkning av speldesign processen jämfört med den traditionella design processen. De negativa aspekterna har indikerat att spelanalys är en ny praxis och fortfarande kräver en hel del kunskap för att kunna användas direkt i spelet designprocessen. Teorin indikerar att spelanalys på väg i rätt riktning eftersom det gör det möjligt för speldesigners att få djupare förståelse om hur sina spelare beter sig för att nå sitt slutmål vilket är att skapa en bättre spelupplevelse.

In this study, we investigate the effect of Heads-Up Display on player experience and performance when playing the first person shooter games Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4. Participants played a mission twice, once with Heads-Up Display and once without. After each session, the participant answered a PENS questionnaire. The amount of enemies killed and the amount of times the player character died during the session was recorded. No significant differences were found other than that the participants who answered that they only played first person shooter games a few times every month killed more enemies with the Heads-Up Display active, and that the overall amount of kills was generally lower when the Heads-Up Display was active. / Denna studie undersökte effekten av Heads-Up Display på spelupplevelsen samt spelarens prestationer i förstapersonsskjutspelen Battlefield 1 och Battlefield 4. Deltagarna spelade ett uppdrag två gånger, en gång med Heads-Up Display och en gång utan. Efter varje spelomgång svarade deltagarna på ett PENS-frågeformulär. Antalet eliminerade fiender samt antalet gånger spelkaraktären dog noterades.  Inga tydliga skillnader framkom mer än att deltagarna som svarat att de spelade förstapersonskjutspel några gånger i månaden lyckades eliminera fler fiender när Heads-Up Display var aktiverat, samt att antalet eliminerade fiender var allmänt lägre när Heads-Up Display var aktiverat.