This paper deals with the Swedish computer and video game industry. The aim is toreach a better understanding of why it has been so successful and why it has seen such a largegrowth during the years 2008-2015. In the paper, this is shown by looking at Sweden’s computerand video game sector as a cluster, as defined by Porter. The analysis is based on a model usingnational systems of innovation. The paper presents a narrative of the development of theSwedish video game industry as well as cases describing specific companies in more detail.The reasons for the growth during the period are found to be primarily three different aspects ofthe sector: (1) success of the Swedish game Minecraft (2) the specific market conditions (3) acycle of growth in the Swedish game industry. The conditions allowing the Swedish gameindustry to be successful are found to be tradition, international focus, the Swedish nationalwelfare system, all supported by well-developed technical educations.

In this essay results are developed on two different levels. First, it is shown in demonstration that a phenomenological analysis on the lines of Roman’s Ingarden’s study of works in literature can be applied to Virtual Reality works, such as professional-simulators and video-games. In particular it can then be pointed out that: i) sound is separable from the scene, but using sound VR becomes enriched; ii) the main role in literature is left for the imagination, while in VR we find richness in concretization. Second, it is argued in discussion that works in VR can be qualified as works of art. These electronic works may have all the aesthetical qualities (based on the phenomenology of Roman Ingarden) of the works of art in the traditional sense. So, that paper has two objectives: an analysis of VR and the search for the status of VR in art.

Game sketching is used to identify enjoyable designs for digital games without the expense of fully implementing them. This thesis presents Raptor, a novel tool for sketching games. Raptor shows how tabletop interaction can effectively support the ideation phase of interaction design by permitting small collocated groups to participate in the design and testing process together. Raptor relies heavily on efficient gesture-based interaction, mixed-reality interaction involving physical props and digital artifacts, Wizard-of-Oz demonstration gameplay sketching, and fluid change of roles between designer and tester. An evaluation of Raptor using seven groups of three people showed that a sketching tool based on a tabletop computer indeed supports ideation and collaboration among collocated groups better than a more traditional PC-based tool. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-12 14:06:34.363

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Video game journalism has been accused for lack in journalistic legitimacy for decades. The historical relation between video game journalists and video game publishers has always been problematic from an objective point of view, as publishers have the power to govern and dictate journalistic coverage by withdrawing financial funding and review material. This has consequently lead to lack in journalistic legitimacy when it comes to video game coverage. However, as the grass roots media movement gained popularity and attention in the mid 2000s, a new more direct and personal way of coverage became evident. Nowadays, grass roots media producers operate within the same field of practice as traditional journalists and the difference between entertainment and journalism has become harder than ever to distinguish. The aim of this master thesis is to discover if grass roots media is more critical than traditional video game journalism regarding industry coverage. The study combines Communication Power theory, Web 2.0 and Convergence Culture, as well as Alternative Media and Participatory Journalistic theory, to create an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. The theoretical framework also guides our choice in methodology as a grounded theory study, where the aim of analysis is to present or discover a new theory or present propositions grounded in our analysis. To reach this methodological goal, 10 different grass roots media producers were interviewed at 6 different occasions. The interviewees were asked about their opinions regarding grass roots media production, their own contribution, as well how they identified journalistic coverage. It was discovered that the grass roots media producers were not more critical than traditional video game journalists. This was because grass roots media producers operate under the rules of entertainment production. It was discovered that if grass roots media producers break out of the normative rules of entertainment production, they would either loose their autonomous freedom or funding, resulting in a catch-22 situation. Furthermore, it was found that grass roots media producers did not identify themselves as journalists; rather they identified themselves as game critics or reviewers. Thus, a video game journalist is categorised as an individual that report writes or edits video game news as an occupation, with formal journalistic training. However, since neither grass roots media producers nor industry veterans in general have journalistic training, it is still unclear who is a video game journalist. Lastly, we found that grass roots media producers have little possibility to influence traditional video game journalism. The only way to increase the status of journalistic legitimacy is by encouraging journalism itself, to engage in critical media coverage. As there is a public demand for industry coverage, and journalistic legitimacy is grounded on the normative democratic self-descriptions of the profession, video game journalism needs to move beyond entertainment and engage in democratically, constructive and critical coverage.

The rising cost in video game content creation, both in terms of man hours and in terms of monetary dollars, restricts the ability of video game developers to create unique, entertaining content. Motivated by how this cost is a direct result of "next-generation graphics", I am motivated to ask: what would a next-generation content creation tool look like? I investigate the problem by constructing several such tools. In particular, I construct a mesh quilting algorithm for random level generation, a rapid level construction toolkit based on the concept of an architectural blueprint but supporting features such as complex silhouette geometry and roof geometry, and a tool for rapidly painting world textures. I also introduce a new system for accessing barycentric coordinate data from within the fragment shader, which can be used in support of real-time 3D image quilting, more accurate normal interpolation, and texture rendering from within the world painting tool. Some history of video game content creation is discussed, and a roadmap is charted for future development. / Graduate

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from PDF file main screen (viewed on July 15, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Online multiplayer is the focus of gameplay for a majority of games released in this day and age, and at the core of multiplayer lies the network code. This means that bad networking code can be ruinous for an entire game. A Sweet Studio is a small game studio that both works as a consultant in the industry as well as develop their own games. But with limited time and money to spend on their own projects, it can be difficult to develop new games. The purpose of this paper is to cover how a multiplayer base can be developed in Unity, iterated on, and how to build it for reusability in a way best, that implementing it in new projects is as simple as possible. The end result is a library with broad functionality and a simple layout. / I majoriteten av datorspel som släpps nuförtiden, är flerspelar gameplay ett av de största fokusen, och i kärnan av den funktionen finns nätverkskoden. Detta betyder att dålig nätverkskod kan förstöra upplevelsen helt och hållet. A Sweet Studio är en mindre spelstudio som både gör konsultarbete inom industrin, och utvecklar sina egna spel. Men med begränsad tid och begränsade pengar att spendera på sina egna projekt, kan det bli tufft att skapa nya spel. Mening med den här rapporten är att gå över hur en flerspelarbas kan utvecklas i Unity, itereras över och hur den bäst byggs för återanvändning, så att det lätt går att implementeras i nya projekt. Slutresultatet är ett bibliotek med bred funktionalitet och en simpel layout.

This study aimed to explore which philosophies and opinions professionals within the Chinese indie game industry hold in relation to the indie concept. Indie is a short form of the word "independence”, and is used to describe certain products and creative practices within media such as video games. The term’s exact definition is however subject to discussion. This study aims to include Chinese game professionals in this discussion. The study was carried out in China through Game Hub Scandinavia (Game Hub Scandinavia, 2018) and in cooperation with Indienova. The participants that were interviewed in this study were all professionals within the Chinese game industry. The research tools developed for these interviews were two playable demos and a survey. The answers provided constituted as basis for the study’s concluding analysis. The data indicated that the Chinese indie developers define indie as a creative endeavour which products and underlying ambitions contrasts the commercially motivated game industry in China. / <p>2018-08-23 14:25, G203, svenska</p><p>Högskolevägen 1, 541 28, Skövde</p>

Submitted by Marco Antônio de Ramos Chagas (mchagas@ufv.br) on 2016-09-09T18:25:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2101606 bytes, checksum: c4227b09a3bae62b835f5aabafc917b3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-09T18:25:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2101606 bytes, checksum: c4227b09a3bae62b835f5aabafc917b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Neste trabalho apresentamos um modelo computacional baseado em teorias de design para gerar mapas de jogos de plataforma visualmente agradáveis. Nós estudamos o problema de geração de mapas como um problema de otimização e provamos que uma versão simplificada do problema é computacionalmente difícil. Em seguida, propomos uma abordagem de busca heurística para resolver o problema de geração de mapas e utilizamos ela para gerar níveis de um clone do Super Mario Bros (SMB), chamado Infinite Mario Bros (IMB). Antes de avaliar os níveis de IMB gerados pelo nosso sistema, realizamos um estudo detalhado das abordagens comumente utilizadas para avaliar o conteúdo gerado por programas de computador. A avaliação utilizada em trabalhos anteriores utiliza apenas métricas computacionais. Embora esses indicadores são importantes para uma avaliação inicial e exploratória do conteúdo gerado, não é claro se são capazes de capturar a percepção do jogador sobre o conteúdo gerado. Neste trabalho, comparamos os conhecimentos adquiridos a partir de um estudo com seres humanos usando níveis de IMB gerados por diferentes sistemas, com os conhecimentos adquiridos a partir de análise dos valores de métricas computacionais. Os nossos resultados sugerem que as m ́etricas computacionais atuais não devem substituir estudos com seres humanos para avaliar o conteúdo gerado por programas de computador. Usando os conhecimentos adquiridos em nosso experimento anterior, foi realizado outro estudo com seres humanos para avaliar os níveis de IMB gerados pelo nosso método. Os resultados mostram a vantagem do nosso método em relação a outras abordagens em termos de estética visual e diversão. Finalmente, foi realizado outro estudo com seres humanos, mostrando que o nosso método é capaz de gerar níveis de IMB semelhantes aos níveis de SMB criados por designers profissionais. / In this work we introduce a computational model based on theories of graphical design to generate visually pleasing video game maps. We cast the problem of map generation as an optimization problem and prove it to be computationally hard. Then, we propose a heuristic search approach to solve the map generation problem and use it to generate levels of a clone of Super Mario Bros (SMB) called Infinite Mario Bros (IMB). Before evaluating the levels of IMB generated by our system, we perform a detailed study of the approaches commonly used to evaluate the content generated by computer programs. The evaluation used in previous works often relies on computational metrics. While these metrics are important for an initial exploratory evaluation of the content generated, it is not clear whether they are able to capture the player’s perception of the content generated. In this work we compare the insights gained from a user study with IMB levels generated by different systems with the insights gained from analyzing computational metric values. Our results suggest that current computational metrics should not be used in lieu of user studies for evaluating content generated by computer programs. Using the insights gained in our previous experiment, we performed another user study to evaluate the IMB levels generated by our method. The results show the advantage of our method over other approaches in terms of visual aesthetics and enjoyment. Finally, we performed one last user study that showed that our method is able to generate IMB levels with striking similarity to SMB levels created by professional designers. / Autor sem Lattes e arquivo PDF não criptografou