Companion characters in are present in many video games across genres, serving the role of the player's partner. Their goal is to support the player's strategy and to immerse the player by providing a believable companion. These companions often only perform rigidly scripted actions and fail to adapt to an individual player's play-style, detracting from their usefulness. Behavior like this can also become frustrating to the player if the companions become more of a hindrance than they are a benefit. Other work, including this project's precursor, focused on building companions that mimic the player. These strategies customize the companion's actions to each player, but are limited. In the same context, an ideal companion would help further the player's strategy by finding complementary actions rather than blind emulation. We propose a game-development framework that adds complementary (rather than mimicking) companions to a video game. For the purposes of this framework a "complementary" action is defined as any that furthers the player's strategy both in the immediate future as well as in the long-term. This is determined through a combination of both player-action and game-state prediction processes, while allowing the companion to experiment with actions the player hasn't tried. We used a new method to determine the location of companion actions based on a dynamic set of regions customized to the individual player. A user study of game-development students showed promising results, with a seventeen out of twenty-five participants reacting positively to the companion behavior, and nineteen saying that they would consider using the framework in future games.

Many Swedish video game companies have in recent years been very successful in terms of share price development. Why is it like that? With the purpose to gain an increased understanding of the investor's choice, we here examine which business models are used in the Swedish video game industry. More specifically, we try to identify what similarities do the business models in the successful companies share and what similarities do the non-performing companies share. The analytical framework used is based on Business Model Canvas adapted to the video game industry. We use a qualitative approach with case studies of 10 listed Swedish video gaming companies, five successful and five non-performing, in terms of share price development. The data collected is from secondary sources, mainly the companies' annual reports, fitting the investors narrative with the assumption that secondary data is generally what influences the stock price.In general, the results suggest that similarities between business models among the successful companies largely coincide with similarities between the non-performing companies, which makes the information less valuable for understanding investors' choices. Nevertheless, one unique similarity among successful companies applies to that they in general have broad gaming portfolios that target several unrelated customer segments, i.e. a diversified market. The non-performing companies instead mainly target a niche market. Another unique similarity among successful companies’ business models concerns their use of acquisition strategies. In the non-performing companies' business models, acquisition strategies are largely lacking.

En este trabajo de investigación se busca recopilar y analizar información sobre la forma en la que la música pregrabada fue utilizada en los videojuegos desde la década de los 90. Para ello se ha empezado por brindar una serie de antecedentes que conforman el panorama en el cual apareció la tecnología que hizo posible la inclusión del audio pregrabado en los juegos de video y, posteriormente, su desarrollo e impacto en esta forma de entretenimiento en los años 90. Luego, se analizan distintos aspectos de la música pregrabada a lo largo de la década de los 2000, como la mayor calidad de audio, su vigencia a lado del chiptune, su tal vez excesivo parentesco con la música para otros medios como el cine, entre otros. Por último, se identifica cómo a pesar de la mayor tecnología disponible desde el 2010, varios usuarios aún prefieren videojuegos breves de calidad sonora chiptune y gráfica de pixel art, las cuales también inspiraron subgéneros musicales novedosos como el synthwave y el math rock. Por estos hechos, mediante el análisis de recursos estilísticos musicales tanto del chiptune como de la música pregrabada, se sugiere la composición de música pregrabada para videojuegos que imite o utilice como referencia el estilo chiptune de los videojuegos clásicos como una nueva opción que permitiría el desarrollo de la música para videojuegos. / This work of research seeks to collect and analyze data about the way pre-recorded music was used in videogames since 90’s decade. The research starts by bringing background information about the situation in which pre-recorded audio started to be used in videogames to follow with its development and impact in this type of virtual entertainment along the nineties. Then, it analyzes aspects of pre-recorded audio in 2000’s decade like the better audio quality; the importance of pre-recorded audio beside its classical, noisy and still used chiptune; the perhaps excessive similarity with movie music, etc. . By last, it is identified how some players still prefer classic pixel art games with chiptune audio despite the technology available nowadays and also how chiptune music inspired new music subgenres like math-rock and synthwave. Due to this, through analyzing musical resources and patrons of both pre-recorded and chiptune music, the investigation suggests the composition of pre-recorded music for videogames which use as a reference the chiptune style. It’d mean a step forward for the development of videogames music due to the popularity of both chiptune classic and pre-recorded moder music. / Trabajo de investigación

The video game industry can be ruthless. As a developer, you usually find yourself working in the popular third-party development tools of the time. These tools however might not provide the best usability and quality of life one desires. This can lead to a lot of frustration for the developer, especially when the development enters a crunch period of long and hard work. We believe some of the frustration can be avoided, and we believe this can be done by creating effective, functional and user-friendly integrated development tools specialized for the development environment. In this master's thesis we investigated just that, how integrated game development tools can be designed to be usable in terms of effectiveness and learnability. The investigation was performed by designing and implementing an integrated game development tool. The development of the tool was performed iteratively with user testing between every iteration to find usability defects, allowing the tool to be refined and improved throughout the development process. To finish off the development process, there was a final user test where professional video game developers tried out the tool and then answered a System Usability Scale questionnaire. The System Usability Scale score and task completion rate showed that the final state of the tool can be considered highly usable in terms of effectiveness and averagely usable in terms of learnability. This suggests that involving user testing in the development process is vital for ensuring good usability in the end product.

En la actualidad, la industria de los videojuegos ha presentado un gran crecimiento con respecto a otras industrias, lo que ha generado un mayor número de competidores en el sector. Asimismo, los modelos de compra de videojuegos han variado con el tiempo, convirtiéndose el free to play en la modalidad más atractiva entre los videojugadores. Por tal motivo, los videojuegos free to play competitivos han optado por invertir en distintos ámbitos, con la finalidad de mejorar su posicionamiento y atraer nuevos usuarios. No obstante, con respecto las inversiones, se ha determinado tres factores que se relacionan al posicionamiento, la inversión publicitaria, la inversión en la escena competitiva y la inversión en influencers. Razón por la cual, se desarrolla cada uno de ellos, mediante su aproximación con el marketing de videojuegos. La metodología comprende un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo, mediante un análisis cruzado de las variables, entrevistas a profundidad y grupos focales. De esta manera, se discute lo recogido, encontrando hallazgos de vital importancia que validan las hipótesis presentadas. Lo que coloca a la inversión en la escena competitiva, como la inversión de mayor importancia para el posicionamiento de los esports free to play. / At present, the videogames industry has shown great growth compared to other industries, which has generated a greater number of competitors in the sector. Likewise, videogame purchase models have varied over time, making free to play the most attractive modality among videogames. For this reason, competitive free to play video games have chosen to invest in different fields, in order to improve their positioning and attract new users. However, with respect to investments, three factors have been determined that relate to positioning, advertising investment, investment in the competitive scene and investment in influencers. Reason why, each of them is developed, through its approach to videogame marketing. The methodology includes a quantitative and qualitative analysis, through a cross-analysis of the variables, in-depth interviews and focus groups. In this way, the collected is discussed, finding findings of vital importance that validate the hypotheses presented. What places the investment in the competitive scene, as the most important investment for the positioning of esports free to play. / Trabajo de investigación

This study focuses on video game developers and their working environments in a growth industry. While some research documents the culture of video games and the people who play them, much less is understood about the labor environment for those who make games. I conducted 20 personal interviews with game developers in order to learn more about what inspired them to select this field, how they gained entry to it, and what their work is like today. Using insights from the interviews, I analyze how workers contend with its male-dominated culture and how creative skilled laborers deal with the challenges of corporate control and precarious work in the new economy.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to extend the understanding of the business model of video game retailers using online and physical stores focusing on the impact of digital platforms on the retailing industry within the context of video game industry considering different actor’s perspectives like retailers and consumers. Design/methodology/approach - This is a multiple-case study based on deductive reasoning. In this qualitative study, two cases of click-and-mortar retailers operating in the Swedish video game industry have been considered along with feedback from customers. Online personal interviews and semi-structured interviews have been conducted with retailers and customers respectively. Both primary and secondary data have been used to conduct the study. Findings - Findings show that video game retailers need to encourage engagement through incentives and other activities in order to create value and change up their formats and sales strategies through pricing to reach new customers and focus on design of their online store fronts to convey trustworthiness.  Research limitations - A major limitation has been the COVID-19 pandemic spreading during the writing of this paper, which resulted in companies backing out to refocus their efforts. Another limitation has been the legal aspect as companies owned by bigger publishers denied to take part in the study to avoid revealing sensitive information. Practical implications - It offers some insightful practical suggestions to retailers who are struggling hard to adopt digital transformations in the industry. Originality - Authors’ proposed research model, based on Sorescu et al. (2011)’s retail business model and the empirical findings, contribute in the less explored domain of research on business models from retailer’s perspectives. Moreover, it adds values in industry specific study like the video game industry in Sweden considering all actors, which is argued as scarce.

This study sought a method for influencing people to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents in video games by making them seem unpredictable. This was inspired by Epley et al.’s (2007) Three-factor theory for anthropomorphism with focus on effectance motivation. It was also inspired by the studies done by Waytz et al. (2010) showing that perceived unpredictability about an agent causes people to anthropomorphize it. To see if perceived unpredictability would cause people to anthropomorphize a nonliving object in a video game, two versions of a game was created, one in which an object with seemingly random behavior was described as unpredictable and one in which the objects behavior was explained beforehand. The data gathered from the participants did not show any statistically significant differences between those that played one version and those that played the other. Meaning that in this case perceived unpredictability didn’t influence people to anthropomorphize a video game object.

“How can game technology be used to maximize creativity and create an effective production pipeline for an animated film?” I think creating animated film should be a fun and creative process, that is why I have chosen this research question. I explore techniques used in Machinima films and aim to make it more user friendly and less restrictive. My research will become a sort of proposal to how the framework of a Machinima film could look in a modern film production. / <p>It was part of the FilmMediaExpo22https://www.uniarts.se/english/news/events/events-spring-2022/filmmediaexpo22</p><p></p>

Protection of Computer Games and Video Games Abstract The topic of this thesis is the legal protection of computer games and video games. Its main goal is to analyse the Czech law of video game protection and to figure out if the current state of legislation is sufficient enough considering the quick growth of the gaming industry by comparing it to the legislation in other countries and pondering de lege ferenda possibilities. The secondary goal of this study is to serve as a brief and practical guide for game creators who are having a hard time with regards to legal protection of their own creations. The thesis does not only revolve around the Czech national law, but it also deals with international law and Community law upon which the Czech law is based. The thesis is divided into six parts. The first part lays down the main goals of the study and possible ways of achieving them. The second part goes through the most important theoretical concepts, terminology and video game history, through which it introduces the reader to video games. The third part focuses on international treaties potentially applicable to video game protection, on the US law, and finally on the European Union law and the law in a few specific European countries. The fourth part introduces in detail all the possible legal forms of...