Är det viktigt för barn att en spelkaraktärs egenskaperreflekteras i dess utseende? Med hjälp av studier inom vad barn attraheras av ispel, avatarer, gameplay, immersion och närvaro, barn och mediepåverkan ochkaraktärsdesign har i detta examensarbete fyra karaktärer med tillhörande miljö och berättelse skapats. Dessa har tillsammans agerat stimulimaterial vid de intervjuer som förts. Tio elever i första klass valdes ut för dessa intervjuer med hjälp av en enkätundersökning där de fick rita upp egna önskespel. Syftet medarbetet har varit att ta reda på vad barnen fokuserar på när de funderar kring valbara avatarer och spel, vad och varför gör barnen de val de gör? Med hjälp av undersökningen går det att konstatera att karaktärsdesign är viktig för barn. Slutdiskussionen kom fram till att vad som gör karaktärsdesign viktig varierar mellan flickor och pojkar då deras fokus påvad de vill uppleva i spel är olika.

Detta är slutreflektionen över ett kandidatarbete gjort av Karl Tannergård och Per Thulin. Arbetet har gått ut på att skapa en prototyp av en barnspel baserat på Inger och Lasse Sandbergs böcker om Lilla Spöket Laban och hans familj. Spelet är tvådimensionellt och vänder sig till barn i åldern fyra till sju år. Det är skrivet i programmeringsspråket Python och använder multimediabiblioteket pygame. Utvecklingen har skett i samarbete med animationsstudion PennFilm AB. / Prototyp av ett barnspel baserat på historien om Lilla Spöket Laban av Inger och Lasse Sandberg. / Per Thulin: per@thulin.net Karl Tannergård: admin@kallux.com • Detta är en reflektionsdel till en digital medieproduktion.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine if users of digital music games may acquire skills from the games that may be of use in learning to play a real instrument, that is a non-digitally simulated instrument like an acoustic piano. We have used Gee’s theory regarding a possible interconnection between different semiotic domains, and how this connection may enable a transfer of skills between related domains. In this thesis we examine possible skill transfer between the domains “digital games” and “non-digital instruments”. To examine our question formulation we chose to conduct a pilot study from which we collected both quantitative and qualitative data. The study was conducted on two groups of children, 6-9 years old, and consisted of the children accepting a musical challenge. The children in one of the groups got access to a digital piano application during a preparatory week, whilst the children in the second group lived their lives as usual. The results, and the time it took for the children to perform the assignment, was documented by the parents of the children in a questionnaire. The data from the questionnaire was then analyzed and used to draw conclusions regarding the possible effect of the piano application on the children. The analysis of the collected data showed that all children that had used the application passed the challenge. The analysis also showed that the child that had the fastest passing time on the challenge had used the application, and that the group of children that had used the application showed a faster average time for passing the challenge than the children who had not used the application. Even though some indicative patterns did emerge through our analysis of the collected data no definitive conclusions could be drawn regarding transfer of skills between the semiotic domains “digital games” and “non-digital instruments”. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka huruvida utövare av digitala musikspel kan tillgodogöra sig kunskaper från spel som är till nytta vid senare inlärning av ett riktigt, det vill säga fysiskt och icke digitalt simulerat instrument som exempelvis ett piano. Vi utgick från Gees teori om att olika semiotiska domäner kan vara kopplade till varandra på ett sätt som möjliggör överföring av kunskap mellan olika närbesläktade domäner. I vårt fall mellan domänerna ”digitala spel” och ”fysiska, icke-digitala musikinstrument”. För att utforska vår frågeställning valde vi att utföra en pilotstudie där vi samlade in och analyserade både kvantitativ och kvalitativ data. Studien bestod av att två grupper av barn, i åldrarna 6-9 år, fick en musikalisk utmaning. Barnen i den ena gruppen fick under en förberedande vecka tillgång till en digital pianoapplikation, medan barnen i den andra gruppen levde sina liv som vanligt. Resultatet, och tiden det tog för barnen att utföra utmaningen dokumenterades av barnens föräldrar i en enkät, och datan från enkäten användes sedan för att dra slutsatser kring den eventuella effekten av pianoapplikationen. Analysen av datan som samlades in via enkäten visade att alla barn som använt sig av applikationen klarade utmaningen. Analysen visade även att barnet som klarade utmaningen snabbast hade använt sig av applikationen och att den grupp med barn som använt applikationen hade en lägre genomsnittstid på utmaningen än barnen som ej använt applikationen. Trots att vissa antydande mönster kunde utläsas genom analys av vår enkätdata så kunde inga tydliga slutsatser dras kring möjligheten för kunskapsöverföring mellan de semiotiska domänerna ”digitala spel” och ”fysiska, icke-digitala musikinstrument”.

<p>This paper considers the roles of critics, newspapers and magazines, in the process ofdescribing computer games and video games as either technical objects or products intendedfor entertainment.The making and “using” of computer games and videogames originates in small groups ofpeople possessing a lot of knowledge in computers, during a time when these kinds of deviceswere very expensive. But now, the gaming culture has grown and almost anyone in oursociety can own and play a video game. For that reason, one could ask the questions “are thegames and the people who plays them still parts of a ‘technical culture’?” and “do we needsome kind of prior knowledge to fully understand the videogame critics?”The critics represent “the official idea” of what a videogame is, how it works and if it is worthplaying. One should be able to trust them since they represent papers and magazines with anassignment to spread information of a serious character. Bourdieus “distinction of taste” and“capital theory” and Vedungs “idea analysis” aided us when we read and analyzed 18computer game and video game reviews in six Swedish news papers and gaming magazines.The conclusion we came up with was that the critics frequently focus their texts to cover the“story”, “graphics”, “feeling” and the “style/genre” of the reviewed games. These dimensionsare easy to understand even if one doesn’t have a lot of experience with video games. Theywere far more common than others that, for example, explained if the game was hard to play,if it contained any bugs (flaws) and discussions like “who would be likely to play thisgame?”, but sometimes they occurred. Dimensions like that require some prior knowledge.Some technical knowledge could help the reader understand more of the reviews, but arerarely essential. According to what we have read in the newspapers and magazines, gamesand gaming could consequently be considered less of a technical question and more of amatter of entertainment.</p>

This paper considers the roles of critics, newspapers and magazines, in the process ofdescribing computer games and video games as either technical objects or products intendedfor entertainment.The making and “using” of computer games and videogames originates in small groups ofpeople possessing a lot of knowledge in computers, during a time when these kinds of deviceswere very expensive. But now, the gaming culture has grown and almost anyone in oursociety can own and play a video game. For that reason, one could ask the questions “are thegames and the people who plays them still parts of a ‘technical culture’?” and “do we needsome kind of prior knowledge to fully understand the videogame critics?”The critics represent “the official idea” of what a videogame is, how it works and if it is worthplaying. One should be able to trust them since they represent papers and magazines with anassignment to spread information of a serious character. Bourdieus “distinction of taste” and“capital theory” and Vedungs “idea analysis” aided us when we read and analyzed 18computer game and video game reviews in six Swedish news papers and gaming magazines.The conclusion we came up with was that the critics frequently focus their texts to cover the“story”, “graphics”, “feeling” and the “style/genre” of the reviewed games. These dimensionsare easy to understand even if one doesn’t have a lot of experience with video games. Theywere far more common than others that, for example, explained if the game was hard to play,if it contained any bugs (flaws) and discussions like “who would be likely to play thisgame?”, but sometimes they occurred. Dimensions like that require some prior knowledge.Some technical knowledge could help the reader understand more of the reviews, but arerarely essential. According to what we have read in the newspapers and magazines, gamesand gaming could consequently be considered less of a technical question and more of amatter of entertainment.

The purpose of this report is to analyze what went wrong with the adventure game project called Fairytale, I started together with 4 of my fellow university students at Gotland University, spring 2007. My ambition with this report is to enlighten problems in game design that arose during the game development process in order to prevent others from making the same mistakes. The problems are analyzed according to game design patterns defined by Björk, S. and Holopainen, J. (2005). Patterns in Game Design. Boston, Massachusetts. Jenifer Niles. The game was exhibited to the public at Gotland Game Awards 2007, Leipzig Game Developers Conference 2007, Tekniska Museet 2007, Almedalsveckan 2008 and Gotland Game Awards 2008. The results of the report show that redesigning already finished game features means a lot of troubles in relation to its dependency on other game elements. The key abilities of the main character were vaguely defined since the beginning of the project which caused problems with earlier designed levels whenever a new item was introduced. The terrain of the prior levels didn’t match the abilities of the new items, which forced changes to be made. The biggest mistake with this project was that finished game elements never were considered final. My role in the project was the solo game programmer and co-designer. I shared the designing tasks together with Annika Fogelgren who also was the producer of our team. Albertina Sparrhult, Emma Johansson and Marie Viberg were our core graphic artists. Together, we created the Fairytale game.